United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday proposed a radical change to the workings of the UN, after a period of scandals and controversy that has plagued the organisation. The blueprint for reform is contained in a 63-page draft report to be presented to the general assembly.
Aerial photographs by Israel’s defence ministry have provided fresh evidence that the government is continuing its rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank despite public statements to the contrary. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday reported that the pictures show extensive construction on settlements.
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Highly repressive laws and an overwhelming climate of fear make it impossible for Zimbabwe’s forthcoming parliamentary election to be free and fair, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. ”Fear, tension and intimidation characterise the environment in which these elections are being held,” said the report’s primary author.
Her fate has divided her family and friends, and entranced a nation that has watched them argue over the ultimate moral dilemma. But on Sunday night, the future of Terri Schiavo — the woman at the centre of an agonising right-to-die case — also became a political touchstone for an increasingly polarised United States.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped up the transatlantic row about selling arms to China on Sunday with a sharply worded warning that the European Union should not upset the balance of power in a region in which it has no defence responsibilities. Rice said Japan and South Korea are also opposed to the EU’s plans.
A British man was cleared on Friday of murdering his father after a court accepted his excuse he was sleepwalking at the time, a highly unusual defence seen just a handful of times in the country’s legal history. Jules Lowe was facing life imprisonment for killing his 83-year-old father in a savage beating at their house in Manchester.
Wildlife authorities in Australia were hunting on Friday for a saltwater crocodile after police found the ferocious reptile in a home and released it near a popular swimming hole, thinking it was a relatively harmless freshwater croc, national radio reported. A woman called police after finding the crocodile taped up in her laundry.
A young black man is painted red and beaten after caught indiscreetly fondling a bottle of Klipdrift brandy in a liquor store in Johannesburg’s notoriously naughty Hillbrow area. What is the pathology behind this? What is going on? What is the hidden symbolism that links violent, pathetic gestures such as the Hillbrow incident?
Now in its 10th year, Working for Water is a successful public works programme. Launched in 1995 to control invading species, it is a multidepartmental initiative led by the departments of water affairs and forestry, environmental affairs and tourism and agriculture. It has 300 projects nationwide.
Libya is breaking out of its political and diplomatic isolation from the Western world and attracting kudos for its macroeconomic policies. Last week, the oil-rich North African state got what amounts to the good housekeeping seal of approval from the International Monetary Fund after an investigation earlier this year.