As the international community reaches the midpoint between the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 and the target date of 2015, the United Nations on Monday released a 36-page report, described as "the most comprehensive global assessment of [MDG] progress to date".
From New York to the Antarctic, from Shanghai to Rio de Janeiro, the world is getting ready to rock on Saturday as organisers of the Live Earth events seek to raise awareness of global warming. We publish a selection of the acts to look out for at the eight Live Earth concerts being promoted by former US vice-president Al Gore.
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Eyelids closed, I clutched a fistful of marble-white sand, fine as flour, then opened my palm to feel the warm sea breeze blow it gently away. I squinted into the sunlight, across the iridescent white, the palm-lined shore, out to the aquamarine ocean, the azure sky. Here I am, in the place with the most poetic name in the world, writes Ed Vulliamy.
About 20 passengers drowned in the River Benue in central Nigeria when their dug-out boat capsized after hitting an object, police said on Tuesday. The boat was carrying about 40 passengers, mostly ethnic Fulani cattle herders fleeing from the district of Guma to the Benue state capital Makurdi after a dispute with local farmers.
An African summit overran on Tuesday as the leaders struggled to avoid a damaging public split over moves to unite the continent under one federal government. The three-day meeting was one day longer than other recent summits and had only one agenda item, the campaign for a United States of Africa.
Czech teenager Nicole Vaidisova proved she has grit as well as glamour when she sent defending champion Amelie Mauresmo spinning out of Wimbledon on Tuesday. Vaidisova won their rain-interrupted fourth-round clash 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 6-1 to reach her first All England Club quarterfinal.
Entertainer Taliep Petersen died only after two previous murder bids planned by his wife, Najwa, went awry, Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. The claim emerged during a bail application by Najwa and Abdoer Emjedi, one of her three co-accused, in a courtroom packed with about 150 family and members of the public.
A man who allegedly held Pretoria News staff hostage earlier this year was denied bail in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. Lionel George (32) was denied bail after the court heard that he had been acquitted on a murder charge, 702 reported.
The latest crime statistics released on Tuesday prove crime is out of control despite government assurances to the contrary, opposition parties said. ”We are alarmed at the increase in murder [2,4%], the 118% increase in bank robberies … and the sharp increase in robberies at residential premises,” Inkatha Freedom Party spokesperson Velaphi Ndlovu said.