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.
At first glance Robert Zoellick, who George Bush nominated to be the next president of the World Bank, could not be more different than his predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz. While both men have been at the heart of Republican-dominated Washington for many years, with careers stretching back into the term of the current President Bush’s father, the two have widely differing personalities.
In a circular to its stakeholders, the organisation’s executive officers, Dorothy Brislin and Tsikani Mthembu, wrote: "Unless a rescue injection of funds occurs within the next few days, the board’s decision to liquidate FRU will proceed." By Tuesday, the pair had already made a desperate plea to Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan for urgent intervention to prevent liquidation.
This week the Bush administration nominated Robert Zoellick to succeed outgoing World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz. Stephanie Wolters asked South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel about the controversial nomination process and the fight against corruption in Africa.
Neoconservative forces, via compliant media outlets and Christian right groupings within the European Parliament, are preparing their latest attack on Hugo Chávez and the government of Venezuela. The latest focus of the campaign is the decision of Venezuela’s broadcasting authorities not to renew the licence of the private television channel Radio Television Caracas.
Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5 000 of the world’s rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China. The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong.
Surrounded by alpine mea-dows and snowcapped peaks, the town of Punakha in central Bhutan bears witness to the difficulty of taking a Buddhist Himalayan monarchy into the 21st century. Inside the 17th-century Tibetan dzong, topped with pagoda-like golden roofs, are 172 civil servants running the affairs of thousands of villagers.
All is emptiness, according to practitioners of Zen Buddhism, and you don’t need to read many news stories about the hotel heiress and inexplicable celebrity Paris Hilton before conceding that they’ve probably got a point. Now, though, as Hilton prepares for a 45-day jail sentence, she has been photographed holding a copy of the bestselling book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
Sasol’s coal-to-liquid technology is making headlines from Johannesburg to Beijing and New York. It has scored big with the coal industry as a way for coal-rich countries such as the United States, China and South Africa to reduce their dependency on imported fuel from hotspots such as the Middle East and Nigeria.
Zimbabwe’s remaining foreign investors, who have chosen to ride out the world’s fastest economic decline, could see their patience rewarded with the seizure of at least half their assets if radicals in President Robert Mugabe’s government have their way. Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana is set to push a new law through Parliament whose ”various measures will accelerate the implementation of the indigenisation”.