Traffic accidents worldwide claim about 1,2-million lives a year and injure millions more, the World Health Organisation said on Monday. Every day 1 000 people under the age of 25 are killed in traffic accidents, with 90% of these deaths occurring in low to middle-income countries mainly in Africa and Asia, it said.
Oil prices dropped in Asian trading on Monday after no major disruptions to production were reported around the weekend presidential election in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer. An overseas monitor, however, said the electoral process failed to meet international standards.
The Nigerian government has accused opposition politicians and election monitors of trying to foment a military coup by demanding a rerun of the weekend’s tarnished presidential election. As a trickle of early results puts the ruling People’s Democratic Party in the lead, opposition parties called for the election to be annulled.
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s right-wing former interior minister, on Sunday night stormed to one of the most impressive first-round victories in French presidential history, making him favourite to beat the socialist Ségolène Royal to the Elysée in a fortnight’s time.
The plan to spring Timothy Rouse from jail must have seemed like a long shot. The 19-year-old had been assessed by the United States authorities as highly dangerous. It was therefore the optimist among Rouse’s associates who had the simple idea of faxing the authorities from a grocery store with instructions that "demanded" he be released.
Vehicle insurance premiums have been soaring by 10% to 20% a year, adding to the cost of owning a car. Apart from the usual suspects — crime and the high cost of spare parts — reckless driving is becoming a major factor. But should cautious drivers be picking up the tab for the lunatics out there?
The leadership of the "disability movement" is naive and spineless — no pun intended — if it believes that "the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities … will strengthen the [office on the status of disabled persons] OSDP", writes MI ‘Papi’ Nkoli, a member of Disabled People of South Africa.
Paul Nkuna takes honey with his coffee. It’s a quirky detail I cannot help noticing, perhaps because of its almost-ordinariness. Usually, honey goes with tea, right?But then Paul Nkuna is almost- ordinary himself. Almost. Starting out as a teacher, he ended up as treasurer of the National Union of Mineworkers, before switching tack to the NUM’s investment company, the Mineworkers’ Investment Company.
When the cloud of apartheid still hovered over our heads, an atmosphere of fear pervaded the country, pushing its way into the thoughts of every activist — the fear that the car trailing you might pull you into detention, the jolt of adrenalin that woke you when a car stopped outside your house at night, writes Kumi Naidoo.
British finance minister Gordon Brown has announced his country’s backing for a global education rapid reaction force designed to provide schooling for millions of African children in war zones or fragile states. In an attempt to replicate the success of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres in health, Brown has provided £20-million to flood areas where education systems have broken down with “clusters” of skilled personnel.