Two more United States soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military announced on Thursday, confirming that May had become the deadliest month for American forces in two-and-a-half years. Meanwhile, the hunt was continuing for five Britons who were snatched at gunpoint from a Finance Ministry building in the capital earlier this week.
England midfielder Owen Hargreaves will join Manchester United from Bayern Munich on July 1, the English Premiership champions said on Thursday. The Old Trafford club confirmed a deal has been reached with the German giants for the 25-year-old, who United have been chasing since last year’s World Cup in Germany.
The world’s richest nations need to show greater commitment towards Africa, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday, amid concern that pledges on aid and development were falling short. Ahead of the forthcoming Group of Eight summit, Blair said it was still possible to effect ”real transformation change” in the years ahead.
The public’s right to know about possible security problems with the new electronic traffic information system outweighed confidentiality concerns over the information, the Pretoria High Court found on Tuesday. Judge Dion Basson dismissed an application by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe to interdict Beeld newspaper.
Following two weeks of debate and legal wrangling about the identity and actions of an anonymous blogger publishing graphic descriptions of the sex he allegedly had with South African celebrities while working as a male prostitute, the blog has come to a sudden end.
The international community must fund the rebuilding of a ”shattered” Zimbabwe after decades of repression under veteran President Robert Mugabe, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday. In a keynote speech, Blair voiced Britain’s support for efforts by South African President Thabo Mbeki to mediate between the Mugabe government and the opposition.
The South African Cabinet has backed President Thabo Mbeki in rejecting alleged suggestions by Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi of similarities between government propaganda and that used by Adolf Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany.
A Zambian court ordered former president Frederick Chiluba on Thursday to stand trial on corruption charges, rejecting his lawyers’ arguments that he was too ill to be prosecuted. ”I am of the view that we should proceed with this matter to help all the other parties involved,” magistrate Jones Chinyama said in a ruling issued in Lusaka.
Proceedings at the two main courts in Johannesburg were disrupted on Thursday as public servants downed tools for three hours. Chanting outside the Johannesburg High Court grew louder as the morning progressed with the number of protesting workers swelling to about one hundred.
As the head of a project that wants to take hi-tech into the developing world, Nicholas Negroponte has had to get used to criticism. Over the past two years the One Laptop Per Child initiative, a scheme aimed at building low-cost computers for education in developing countries, has been attacked many times.