No image available
/ 8 February 2007
Al-Qaeda’s influence is spreading into the cities and deserts of North Africa. Increasingly, Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians who have known only poverty, corruption and police crackdowns are answering extremist Islam’s call to remake the world — with violence, if need be.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
Anglo American has formed a new South African coal group, Anglo Inyosi Coal, worth R7-billion and 27% owned by black investors, the mining group said on Thursday. The deal is in line with the government’s black economic empowerment policy aimed at giving black South Africans, disadvantaged under apartheid, a bigger stake in Africa’s economic powerhouse.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
More than 50 schoolchildren were on Thursday evacuated to various hospitals suffering severe skin irritation, paramedics and health authorities said. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said evacuation of the children from Alipore Primary School in Durban’s Merebank suburb followed a similar incident on Wednesday when 36 children from the school were taken to hospital.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel will not be attending the group of seven (G7) finance ministers and central bank Governors meeting in Essen, Germany, as earlier advised, the National Treasury said on Thursday. National Treasury director general Lesetja Kganyago will attend the gathering on his behalf, it said in a statement.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
Chinese President Hu Jintao is in Africa bearing the usual gifts of money for soccer stadiums and interest-free loans, but is also acknowledging tensions. Unmentioned, as Beijing adds lustre to Africa’s renewed status as a strategic ally, is the possibility of a clash with the United States as the two vie for resources and influence on the continent.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
About 300 000 Burundians affected by floods since November last year are due to receive seeds from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to tide them over until the next harvest season, a WFP official has said. The agency will provide the aid between February 15 and March 15.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
United States-backed Iraqi troops arrested the Iraq Health Ministry’s second highest official on Thursday, charging that he murdered opponents and funnelled million of dollars to rogue Shi’ite militia groups.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo on Thursday warned that heavy rains lashing the country could soon fuel an emergency and wreak more havoc than heavy floods in 2001 when nearly 1Â 000 people died. ”It’s really a dramatic situation and there is a possibility of emergency,” she told reporters.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
There are no signs of life behind the bay windows of the cream-coloured seaside villas on a secluded side of Macau, reportedly home these days to the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. ”He’s here in Macau. That’s true,” said a watchman, who looked at once amused and annoyed by the sudden interest in the four-storey homes.
No image available
/ 8 February 2007
South Africa is not experiencing a heatwave, the South African Weather Service said on Thursday. ”It is close to a heatwave, but it [the temperature] will be cooling down rapidly tomorrow [Friday],” said spokesperson Garth Sampson. He said a heatwave is measured in the smallest province of the country, which is Gauteng.