French President Nicolas Sarkozy met his prime minister on Monday after securing an unexpectedly small parliamentary majority and losing a senior minister — setbacks that nonetheless left his reform programme on track. Sarkozy formally reappointed Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and their first task will be to find a replacement for government number two Alain Juppe.
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the main opposition movement have held preliminary talks under a new regional drive to end Zimbabwe’s political and economic turmoil. The ruling party and two MDC factions sent representatives to Pretoria where they held weekend talks with South Africa’s local government minister Sydney Mufumadi.
Fidel Edwards stunned England as the West Indies took charge of the fourth and final Test at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday with three late wickets. At stumps on the third day England were 121-4 in reply to the tourists’ first innings 287, a deficit of 166, after danger man Kevin Pietersen was out for nought to the last ball of the day, caught behind off Edwards after under-edging a pull.
Angel Cabrera edged superstar Tiger Woods and former champ Jim Furyk to win the 107th US Open golf championship, becoming the first Argentinian to lift the coveted trophy. He joined Roberto di Vicenzo, winner of the 1967 British Open at Hoylake, as the only Argentinians to win one of golf’s four Major titles.
Marauding Europeans are nothing new to the Galapagos Islands, which long ago were the haunt of English pirates preying on Spanish galleons laden with Inca gold. But Ecuador, which owns the archipelago, may soon have to take action against menacing outsiders, realising foreigners with cameras are every bit as dangerous as those with cutlasses.
The JSE was barely changed at noon on Monday, having retreated from the morning’s highs as investors locked in profits after Friday’s record run. At 12.09pm, the all-share index was up just 0,05%. Resources fell 0,24%, the gold-mining index was down 0,73% but the platinum-mining index was up 1,39%.
Greece is mounting a nationwide effort to remove "eye candy" billboards from roadsides, amid growing evidence that images of women wearing not very much contribute to Europe’s worst road accident figures. With 15 000 hoardings in the capital alone, drivers are distracted by "unacceptable levels of eye candy".
In a plush Bangkok ballroom one evening, hoteliers, ambassadors, celebrity chefs and socialites gathered to dine on foie gras, oysters and sushi while they talked about promoting Thai cuisine. Between helpings of Alaskan king crab, French wine and melt-in-your-mouth Parma ham flown in from Italy, the assembled crowd discussed ways of putting Bangkok on the international culinary map.
It was regrettable that immigration officers had joined the public-service strike, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) said on Monday. TBCSA spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said the decision by the essential services committee to allow the officers to join the strike was detrimental to competitiveness.
A large explosion struck Mogadishu on Monday near the venue where a national reconciliation conference is due to be held next month. ”I heard a loud explosion that shook the whole ground near me. I saw a burning car thrown high in the sky by the intesity of the explosion,” witness Abdullahi Yere told Reuters.