Thousands of women gathered in Kimberley on Thursday for national Women’s Day celebrations, some bussed in from as far as Pampierstad. Groups of singing women had been arriving at Galeshewe Stadium throughout the morning. Many were dressed in the green and black colours of the African National Congress Women’s League.
New York commuters beat a wary path to work on Thursday, the day after a freak storm plunged the city into chaos, felling trees, flooding roads and jamming the city’s vast underground train network. Streets were blocked by fallen trees, wrecked cars and rubble from damaged homes.
Pakistan’s beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf has no plans to impose emergency rule, contrary to widespread reports that he was about to announce the authoritarian measure, the president of the ruling party said on Thursday. ”There is no possibility of an emergency,” Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of Pakistan Muslim League, said.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is nearing a deal with the opposition to end a political crisis in his country after South Africa tried to broker an agreement, a document obtained by Reuters on Wednesday indicated. A confidential report due to be presented to leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community says ”progress” has been made in talks.
Tens of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims made their way on foot to a shrine in the north of Baghdad on Thursday, hoping for safety at an annual ritual marred by violence in the past two years. Two years ago, nearly 1Â 000 pilgrims were killed in a stampede on a bridge near the shrine, sparked by rumours of a suicide bomber.
Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday evening that South Africa is facing a critical shortage of specialist skills in a number of fields, most especially in the important financial and economic field. However, he added it is pleasing to see some institutions were getting involved to help develop the skills base.
Virgin America got an early taste of the challenges facing the United States aviation industry on Thursday as a thunderstorm wreaked havoc at New York’s congested airports, delaying the carrier’s inaugural flight. The new domestic carrier’s first service was due to take off from Kennedy airport at 9.59am — but flight VX1 to San Francisco finally lifted off shortly before 11am.
United States space shuttle Endeavour was blasting through space on Thursday, taking the first teacher there 21 years after the Challenger explosion ended the dream of another pioneering teacher. Teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan (55) has become the star of the second shuttle mission to the International Space Station this year.
New Zealand Test captain Stephen Fleming has been left out of the Kiwi squad for next month’s inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa after the selectors confirmed Daniel Vettori as the new skipper. Vettori was the obvious choice to succeed Fleming as skipper after he quit the one-day captaincy following this year’s World Cup in the Caribbean.
Record high oil prices have so far had a muted effect on sub-Saharan Africa, with exporters reaping rewards and importers less badly hit than many had feared. A combination of demand, refinery bottlenecks and political fears drove crude oil to a record high of more than ,50 last week. While the poorest are paying the price, the impact has not been the disaster some forecast.