Somali Prime Minister Nur Hasan Husein on Friday announced a new downsized Cabinet after weeks of consultations. ”I announce the fifteen ministers and five assistants of my Cabinet now and I wish to nominate the members that are left soon,” the premier said in the town of Baidoa.
International efforts to put an end to North Korea’s nuclear programme appeared to hit a snag on Saturday after Pyongyang defiantly insisted it had lived up to its end of a six-party disarmament deal. North Korea agreed last February to give up its nuclear-weapons programmes in return for one million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent energy aid.
The whirlwind of violent destruction triggered by Benazir Bhutto’s death lashed Kashmore, a cotton-farming town at the junction of Pakistan’s three largest provinces, particularly hard. A frenzied mob tore through its narrow streets, plundering banks, torching the hospital and trashing its telephone exchange.
”They said this day would never come,” said United States Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama at the outset of his barnstorming victory speech on Thursday night. But as he arrived in New Hampshire early on Friday, Americans woke up to the historic possibility that the day when they might have a black president was closer than they thought.
Georgians began voting on Saturday in a snap presidential election called by fiery pro-Western reformer Mikheil Saakashvili to face down unrest and restore his democratic credentials. The election, where Saakashvili faces six challengers, opened under thick snow in the strategic ex-Soviet republic’s ancient capital, Tbilisi.
United Nations agencies have expressed increasing concern for the plight of up to 250 000 Kenyans displaced by post-election violence, as international diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis continued. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at least 100 000 people in the northern Rift Valley alone needed immediate help.
South Africa were in charge on Friday at the close of play on the third day of the second Test against the West Indies at Newlands in Cape Town. The visitors were in trouble on 96-4, for a slender lead of 18. The two teams played a game of cat and mouse for most of the afternoon, as each tried to gain the upper hand, but the South Africans took control as they claimed four vital wickets.
President Mwai Kibaki is open to the idea of a coalition government to end Kenya’s post-election crisis but only if the opposition meets his terms, South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said on Friday. ”There is a great deal of hope,” said Tutu, trying to mediate to end turmoil that has killed more than 300 people and threatened one of Africa’s strongest economies.
This year’s Dakar Rally has been cancelled over security concerns, in particular direct ”terrorist” threats to the race, organisers announced on Friday. The race had been due to start in Lisbon on Saturday but the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania on December 24 led to the French government advising against any travel to the country.
Martina Hingis was banned for two years on Friday for testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon last year. The International Tennis Federation said an independent anti-doping tribunal found that Hingis, who announced her retirement November 1 on the day she revealed the positive test, had committed an offence.