Zimbabwe’s central bank governor says that the cash-strapped Southern African country last year spent -million importing food to make up for poor harvests, a state-controlled newspaper reported on Wednesday. ”Zimbabwe’s grain imports gobbled up -million last year,” the Herald quoted Gideon Gono as saying.
British low-cost airline easyJet said on Wednesday that it is to start flying to Africa for the first time with a new route to Marrakesh in Morocco from July. The no-frills carrier will offer daily flights to the continent from London’s Gatwick airport on July 4, as it expands its horizons beyond Europe.
World 4x100m freestyle record holders Ryk Neethling and Roland Schoeman will be joined by two of Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend, Gerhard Zandberg and Karl Thaning when the aquatics action takes centre stage on the first day of action at the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, on March 16.
Lou Vincent compiled a watchful century, and Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming made half-centuries on Wednesday to give New Zealand a 91-run victory over the West Indies in the fourth limited-overs cricket international. New Zealand compiled 324 for six at McLean Park after being sent in to bat.
United States President George Bush on Tuesday extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be undermining democracy. The decision renews Bush’s executive orders of March 2003 and November 2005 freezing the assets of more than 100 people and 30 entities considered to be opposing reforms in Zimbabwe.
It is up for several honours at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, but already Crash has taken first prize when it comes to most curse words in a movie nominated for a best picture Oscar, according to the movie watchdog group FamilyMediaGuide.com.
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Voters were streaming to polling stations in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. In Hyde Park, parking was a battle with cars stretching up and down the streets around voting stations. A woman who refused to be named had only one request: ”Politicians should just learn to apologise and admit when they are wrong or else they will discourage people from voting for them”.
Kenyan police said on Wednesday they had arrested three journalists over an article alleging that President Mwai Kibaki held secret talks with a lawmaker who had successfully rallied opposition to constitutional reform last year. After recording statements, the men were locked in the capital’s Kileleshwa police post, said Danson Diru, a police’s criminal police investigations officer.
Profound pessimism about the Iraq war has pushed United States President George Bush’s popularity to an all-time low of 34%, as polls on Tuesday showed American civilians and soldiers at odds with the White House over US objectives and strategy. Asked what Washington would do if civil war broke out in Iraq, Bush said: ”I don’t buy your premise that there’s going to be a civil war.”
Archaeologists have uncovered remains of an Indonesian civilisation entombed by debris from the largest volcanic eruption in modern history. Mount Tambora’s eruption on April 10 1815 smothered villages on the island of Sumbawa with pumice, ash and rock, and claimed the lives of 90 000 people.