The United States military presents its new Africa Command as a helping hand offering aid and training to the world’s poorest continent, but many Africans fear it could bring double trouble to a conflict-racked region. US officials dress the new regional command to be launched on Monday in a shiny altruistic uniform, saying it is designed to help Africa improve its own stability.
South Korea’s president said on Monday he would use the second summit between the leaders of the divided Koreas to press for peace and an eventual arms cut. Roh Moo-hyun will lead a motorcade from Seoul on Tuesday, which includes business leaders, bureaucrats, poets and clerics.
The unveiling of a multimillion-rand extension to the international terminal building of the OR Tambo International Airport was a milestone in preparing for the 2010 World Cup, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said in Johannesburg on Sunday.
A suicide bomber wearing a burqa set off explosives in the north-western Pakistani town of Bannu on Monday killing up to 15 people, including four policemen, security officials said. The blast was the lastest in a wave of attacks, most in the north-west of the country near the border with Afghanistan.
The shutdown of communications in Burma has slowed information to the outside world to a trickle, with the number of reports to one exile group cut by half and websites with the .mm Burma suffix being unavailable, campaigners said on Sunday.
The Democratic Alliance is to ask President Thabo Mbeki questions in Parliament relating to National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli’s suspension and the reported warrant of arrest issued for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi. The party’s parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said it was "imperative that the president informs the nation".
Domestic workers now have an affordable and simple retirement savings plan that will make it easier for employers to provide for their workers’ retirement. The product launched by the Presidential Working Group on Women and Old Mutual forms part of a much larger initiative by PWGW to create a women’s retirement plan, writes Maya Fisher-French.
Once upon a time there were two countries separated by an ocean. One was called China and its people worked long hours to produce cheap goods. The other was known as the United States. Once its people worked hard and it was the workshop of the world. But recently the US had not worked so hard and for every $100 of goods and services produced in its factories and offices, $106 was spent in its shopping malls.
There has been much interest recently in mine-contaminated water, with media reports highlighting the issue and concern mounting that environmental and health risks are not being managed effectively. Africa’s variable and unreliable water resources have been a source of conflict for centuries.
Temperatures in the Niger Delta’s swelling creeks are up again following threats by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) to resume attacks on oil infrastructure and kidnapping expatriates in the area. Mend made the threats recently after the arrest in Angola of Henry Okah, aka Jomo Gbomo, the leader of the main Mend faction.