Drug trafficking has risen sharply in Africa, which has become a favoured transit point for smugglers moving drugs from Latin America to Europe, a senior Interpol official said on Monday. ”Africa is a region where drugs are produced, consumed and trafficked,” said the international agency’s executive director of police services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.
An English court found three defendants guilty on Monday over a failed Islamist plot to set off bombs in London on July 21 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings that killed 52 commuters in the capital. Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed were found guilty of conspiracy to murder after a six-month trial.
Internet search giant Google said on Monday it has agreed to buy web security firm Postini for $625-million in cash, expanding its business software applications. Google plans to operate the company as a subsidiary in its Google Apps (applications) unit, which includes its email, calendar and documents applications.
Religious scholars gathered outside a besieged Pakistani mosque on Monday, asking Islamist militants to send out dead and wounded along with women and children, a day after authorities gave "a final warning" to surrender.
The World Bank agreed on Monday to give Mozambique -million in credit to help upgrade its road network, most of which was damaged and neglected during a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992. Mozambique will be exempt from interest and have 40 years to pay back the funds.
Striking metal and engineering workers handed over a memorandum to an employer representative in Johannesburg on Monday. The trade unions, led by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, demanded a 10% wage increase for the lowest grade and 9% for the highest grade workers for the next three years.
The circumstances that led to Nedbank’s loss of market share and the manner in which the retail business’s turnaround is being achieved offer compelling evidence of Nedbank’s significantly different profile within the South African banking landscape, says Nedbank Retail MD Rob Shuter.
Thousands of Harry Potter fans have signed a petition urging JK Rowling to keep writing novels about the boy wizard after she admitted she could ”never say never” to more books. The ”Save Harry!” petition calls on Rowling to reverse her decision to end the best-selling series with the seventh and final instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Iran has slowed the installation of centrifuge machines that enrich uranium for its controversial nuclear programme, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Monday. Western powers have condemned Tehran’s expansion of enrichment work in defiance of United Nations demands.
Boeing has raised the curtain on its first fully assembled 787 to an audience of thousands who packed into its widebody assembly plant for the plane’s extravagantly orchestrated premiere. The giant factory doors opened wide as the plane slowly moved into view to the strains of a theme song composed specially for the 787.