South Africa has embarked on the construction of 2,3-million subsidised houses since 1994, the Presidency said on Thursday. Releasing a set of 72 indicators of development, it said the number of households had increased because of population growth and a shift to smaller households.
A fire that broke out this week at Zimbabwe’s only newsprint producer has crippled production, the official Herald daily said on Thursday. Newsprint for the handful of newspapers still operating in Zimbabwe comes from the eastern border city of Mutare, which lies close to a number of timber plantations.
The continued threat of sanctions against Sudan will only hamper progress towards deploying a hybrid African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force to Darfur, the government said on Thursday. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said that sanction threats against Khartoum were ”surprising” and unhelpful.
An association to support the development of South Africa’s growing nuclear industry has been formed. This was announced in Pretoria on Thursday by Rob Adam, chairperson of the newly formed Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa.
Cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have more than quadrupled in the Western Cape in the past three months, the Cape Times reported on Thursday. Since World TB Day in March, 45 XDR-TB cases have been notified in the province. Eight people have died, according to provincial health department figures.
Lewis Hamilton may be the hottest property in Formula One, but he was brought back down to earth with a bump on Thursday while taking a go-kart for a spin around a central London square. A video on the BBC News website showed the Briton racing a customised Mercedes-McLaren kart around a tight circuit, only to overcook a right-hand bend.
Pakistani traders on Thursday announced a reward of 10-million rupees (%165 000) for anyone who beheads Salman Rushdie following Britain’s decision to award the novelist a knighthood. The announcement came during a protest by 200 traders at Aabpara market, one of the main bazaars in the capital, Islamabad.
Trade talks among the World Trade Organisation’s four most powerful members have failed because of their inability to agree on farm subsidy cuts, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said on Thursday. ”It was useless to continue the discussions based on the numbers that were on the table,” Amorim said at a news conference.
Some of London’s key landmarks and top hotels are to go dark for an hour on Thursday evening as the British capital does its bit for the fight against global warming and turns off its lights. The Houses of Parliament, luxury hotels like the Ritz, and key businesses will take part in the ”Lights Out” campaign.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Glastonbury for the world’s biggest green-field arts and music festival on Thursday — and with rain falling and more forecast to come, mud lovers might not be disappointed. The festival is notorious for its torrential rain after three ”washout” years in 1997, 1998 and 2005.