Former Liberian president Charles Taylor will answer for his alleged role in the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone before a court in The Netherlands on Monday. But, despite the distance between the West African country and the court room in The Hague, the population of Sierra Leone will not be cut off from the process.
Tropical Storm Barbara strengthened in the Pacific Ocean on Friday and was expected to make landfall near the border between Mexico and Guatemala on Saturday without becoming a hurricane. Forecasters at the United States National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Barbara was located 350km south of the small oil port of Salina Cruz.
Jack Kevorkian, the United States assisted suicide advocate dubbed ”Dr Death”, stepped free from a Michigan prison on Friday with few words but plans for a media blitz to support his cause. Kevorkian (79) who says he assisted in about 130 deaths, had served eight years for a second-degree murder conviction.
Just when you thought the United States presidential race was crowded enough, Sharon Stone has decided to run for the White House. The Hollywood star has ditched her Democrat sympathies and hired George Bush’s former ad guru for her Republican campaign.
Zimbabwe’s health delivery system has collapsed amid worsening shortages of nursing staff and a doctors strike, a doctors group said on Friday. Inadequate remuneration and unacceptable working conditions for health workers across the country have resulted in a crisis that has left the country’s major referral hospitals unable to function.
Jamaican police are to announce that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes and was not murdered as they had initially stated, Britain’s Daily Mail said on Saturday. Citing a source close to the inquiry, the newspaper says Jamaican authorities will say they are no longer treating the death suspiciously.
A <i>Guardian</i> investigation has found evidence of serious irregularities at the heart of the process the world is relying on to control global warming. The Clean Development Mechanism, which is supposed to offset greenhouse gases emitted in the developed world by selling carbon credits from elsewhere, has been contaminated by gross incompetence.
They are members of a hidden army who inhabit a curious in-between world. Tough, heavily armed private security guards who love the adrenalin buzz rub along with high-flying businesspeople and contractors. Blue collar workers trying to make a quick buck or do their bit for the cause are thrown together with poorly paid cooks, cleaners and laundry workers from across the globe.
Union leaders sought to draw other sectors into their wage dispute with the government on Friday as thousands of public servants countrywide downed tools. The first day of what the unions said would be an indefinite strike passed without major incident and had a patchy effect on service delivery.
Russia accused Britain of politicising the case of murdered Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko on Friday and said the affair was hurting the two countries’ relations. ”We see attempts from the British side to use the criminal case to build up some sort of political campaign,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.