Valentino Rossi won the Italian Grand Prix for the sixth consecutive time on Sunday and moved within nine points of MotoGP series leader Casey Stoner. It was the second victory this season for Rossi, who also won the Spanish GP in March. Riding a Yamaha, Rossi timed 42 minutes, 42,385 seconds over 23 laps on the Mugello circuit.
Twenty-two people, most of them Togolese sports officials, were killed when a passenger helicopter exploded and crashed on Sunday at Sierra Leone’s main international airport. The helicopter was operated by Paramount Airlines, which shuttles passengers between Freetown and Lungi airport.
British artist who last week ate a meal of meatballs made from a dead corgi dog in a protest against animal cruelty said on Sunday his next project involved being buried in a box under a mountain of mashed potato. Performance artist Mark McGowan (37) said the corgi, which died from natural causes, tasted terrible.
President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday called for enhanced legitimacy through representation and accountability as well as recapitalisation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said low-income countries would continue to draw heavily on a wide range of macro- and micro-economic policy advice linked to financing needs.
A Somali Islamist group on Monday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted the Horn of Africa country’s prime minister. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has accused al-Qaeda of being behind Sunday’s suicide bombing that killed seven people outside his home in Mogadishu.
Australia coach John Connolly is set to rest players for Saturday’s test against Fiji in Perth, keeping his powder dry before the opening Tri-Nations clash with the Springboks. Connolly sees the game against in-form South Africa in Cape Town on June 16 as the first genuine test of the year for the Wallabies.
The trial of Charles Taylor — the former president of Liberia and the first former African leader to face an international court — opens in The Hague on Monday where he is accused of war crimes during the diamond-fuelled conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The prosecutor will open the trial, which is expected to last for a year, by detailing 11 war crimes charges against Taylor.
Continuity has always been the name of the game in Nigerian politics and this time is no different. The outgoing president, Olusegun Obasanjo, made much of the fact that he oversaw the first civilian-to-civilian transition in the nation’s history, but what does this amount to?
The scrap has well and truly begun for the precious subscription broadcasting licences that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) intends to issue. This week saw the launch of public hearings held by the regulator, which will allow it to whittle down the 18 applicants to those deserved few, who will be given an opportunity to make their fortune in the billion-rand pay-TV industry.
Farmers in East Africa are set to enter the lucrative international organic produce market after launching their own seal of quality for organic products. The farmers hope the new East African Organic Products Standard (EAOS) — launched at the East African Organic Conference in Dar es Salaam this week — will boost sales for struggling farmers in the region and give their produce an exclusivity they can market at premium prices.