Formerly warring north and south Sudan were at loggerheads on Sunday as the south pulled out of a national census, a cornerstone of their fragile peace agreement, citing a barrage of grievances. ”We have deferred the census until sometime this year,” the information minister in the southern government confirmed.
Ethiopians voted on Sunday in a first round of general elections that the opposition coalition boycotted to protest alleged intimidation of its candidates, and that an international rights group said would be unfair. Governing coalition candidates are running virtually unchallenged after the main opposition coalition pulled out.
Gospel singer Solly Moholo performed outside the Swartruggens Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning as the public started to gather for the trial of murder accused Johan Nel. Moholo sang Umshini Wami, which is popularly known as African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s trademark song.
The bodies of two teenagers were found on top of a grave in the Azalea Cemetery in Imbali, Pietermaritzburg police said on Sunday. Inspector Joey Jeevan said the girls — believed to be aged 16 and 17 — were found at about 10am on Saturday. They had been shot and stabbed several times in the head and body, she said.
A doubling of food prices over the past three years could push 100-million people in poorer developing countries further into poverty and governments must step in to tackle the issue, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Sunday at the end of the World Bank spring meeting in Washington, DC.
Manhattan is a famously elitist place when it comes to fine dining. Who you know is often the key to securing a table at one of the hot new restaurants. Imagine the horror then, when the latest hyper-chic establishment of New York’s most happening chef opted for an egalitarian alternative.
Italians have a last chance to vote on Monday in a two-day parliamentary election that could restore conservative billionaire Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister of a country on the brink of recession. Many Italians doubt, however, that Italy’s 62nd government since World War II will revive the economy.
Former communist rebels in Nepal appear to be on the brink of a historic sweep in elections that will decide the political future of the Himalayan nation and end the rule of its 239-year-old royal dynasty. The Maoists’ party has won 42 seats and is leading in 58 constituencies, the election commission said in a statement on its website.
China has arrested nine monks for a bomb attack on a government building in Tibet last month, an official said on Sunday. Tibetan support groups warned that it was impossible to verify the claims because the authorities do not allow independent observers into the region.
Fictional robots always have a personality: Marvin was paranoid, C-3PO was fussy and HAL 9000 was murderous. But reality is disappointingly different. Sophisticated enough to assemble cars and assist during complex surgery, modern robots are dumb automatons, incapable of striking up relationships with humans. But that could soon change.