Eritrea on Friday strongly denied allegations it is massing troops along its border with Sudan, rejecting as ”groundless” reported statements to that effect made by a Sudanese official. ”It’s a groundless accusation, a total fabrication,” said Yemane Gebremeskel, director of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki’s office.
The world’s second largest cigarette manufacturer, British American Tobacco, expressed ”astonishment” on Thursday at an Italian court’s decision that it was responsible for the death of a lung cancer victim and must pay his heirs â,¬200 000.
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, launched a fierce attack on Britain and the United States on Thursday for weakening human rights in the name of the war on terror. ”We cannot compromise on core values,” he said in Madrid on the first anniversary of the train bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital.
Certain limitations on a Congress of South African Trade Union picket on the Zimbabwe border were arbitrary and unreasonable, Cosatu argued in papers before the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Cosatu is bringing an urgent application to contest an official decision to limit the number of picketers to 200.
In 1919, the Chicago White Sox contrived to deliberately lose the baseball World Series, producing a gambling scandal of epic proportions and one of the most enduring lines about America’s favourite sport: ”Say it ain’t so, Joe.” The lament, was back in circulation this week as the world of professional baseball confronted its latest demon: the use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs.
Discarded All Black Nick Evans scored a try and sharpened the attacking edge of the Otago Highlanders, who beat South Africa’s Bulls 23-0 on Friday in a Super 12 rugby match at Carisbrook. Evans returned from injury to play at flyhalf for the Highlanders and made a huge impression in a 58-minute stay before a further injury forced him from the field.
There are taxis and there are taxes. I’m sure that if we were given a choice, most of us would choose taxis, writes Mike van Graan. But we must all do our bit to keep our society functioning, like paying police to catch criminals.
Five years after the Nasdaq index peaked at 5132,52 on 10 March 2000, the Nasdaq is still 60% below this "irrational exuberance" peak as it closed at 2059,72 on 10 March 2005. All the prayers, hopes, media hype and entreaties of the average United States investor and many politicians seem to have had absolutely no effect on the relentless slide of the Nasdaq.
Jailed Zimbabwean opposition lawmaker Roy Bennett on Thursday lost a court bid to win his release on the eve of this month’s parliamentary elections. Bennett, one of three white Zimbabweans who hold seats in Parliament, is serving a one-year prison term for shoving the justice minister during a heated debate in Parliament.
President Thabo Mbeki has recommended that Deputy Chief Justice Pius Langa succeed Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson when he steps down, his office said on Friday. In February, Chaskalson asked that he be allowed to leave his post at the end of May.