The European Union must substantially increase financial resources for research on a vaccine against HIV, which causes Aids, leading non-governmental activists say. Ann Katrin Akalin, spokesperson of the German Aids Foundation, says the EU is contributing only 6% of the world’s total public financing for research on a vaccine.
South Africa on Thursday named a suspended player in their squad for an African Nations Cup qualifier in the latest in a series of public-relations howlers for the country’s football association. Germany-based defender Bradley Carnell was booked in South Africa’s last two qualifying matches and is suspended for next Saturday’s Group 10 match against Chad in Ndjamena.
The trend for young doctors and nurses to seek higher salaries and better working conditions, mainly in the West, is killing the healthcare sector in Ghana, a senior public servant said. ”It is the single most significant impact on healthcare delivery in this country,” Ghana Health Service head Agyeman Badu Akosah told Agence France-Presse in an interview.
The government will never overlook qualified South Africans in preference to foreign skills in its ongoing drive for economic transformation, said Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Thursday. The minister said that ”while the government is trying to address disparities of the past and transform our economy, all South African citizens … are its first priority”.
If South Africa was not capable of hosting the 2010 World Cup, it would not have approached Fifa for the rights to host the event, the local organising committee (LOC) said on Thursday. LOC spokesperson Tim Modise said there were people who were sceptical about the country’s capabilities, especially in the media.
Microsoft opened its 15th TechFest to journalists last week, unveiling up to 100 innovations — some significant, but most of which will never appear in public. It was a wonderfully cosmopolitan event. There were 75 journalists from as far afield as the Russian Federation and Australia, with a sizeable contingent representing India.
Africa’s leading cotton-producing countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad — are upset over Washington’s continued failure to implement the commitments it undertook at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Hong Kong ministerial meeting in 2005 to address the distortions caused by the United States subsidies in the global cotton trade.
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Makhaya Ntini will miss South Africa’s World Cup opener against The Netherlands after flying into the Caribbean on Wednesday, two days ahead of the match. Ntini will train with South Africa on Thursday and should be ready for next Tuesday’s match against Scotland.
South Africa’s environmental police force, the ”Green Scorpions,” will be out in strength around the country on Thursday in a massive crackdown on polluters and poachers. The Department of Environmental Affairs is to crack down on illegal fishing, the disposal of hazardous waste and the activities of at least one chemical plant.
The international community should take a "far tougher line" against Sudan over atrocities in Darfur to prevent extremism spreading across Africa, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday. In an interview on Sky News television, Blair offered a robust defence of his views on combating radicalism and said countries need to act to prevent future security threats.