Fighting between government forces and Muslim rebels is spreading in the southern Philippines, shattering hopes for peace and threatening local support for a United States-backed campaign to flush out militants. Army commandos were on Tuesday fanning out into the jungles of Jolo island to hunt members of the Moro National Liberation Front.
Divided for three decades by Africa’s longest territorial dispute, a Sahrawi family comes together in a drab courtyard and the women break into ecstatic singing, their bright robes shimmering in the Saharan sunlight. Most are too young to remember the events of 1975 when Morocco annexed Western Sahara and the indigenous Sahrawis took up arms in a guerrilla war.
Zimbabwe’s independence anniversary is approaching, but the mood is far from celebratory in a nation blighted by an upsurge in political violence and deepening economic chaos. The Zimbabwean opposition and critics abroad accuse President Robert Mugabe of economic mismanagement and political oppression.
United States President George Bush’s ”war on terror” rhetoric has strengthened terrorist groups by helping them to create a shared identity, the British Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, warned on Monday. The Foreign Office reportedly asked politicians and diplomats to drop the phrase last year.
Senior Democratic figures are defecting from Hillary Clinton’s camp to her main rival, Barack Obama, in the 2008 race for the White House, according to detailed financial disclosures released on Monday. Among Obama’s contributors were a dozen former fundraisers for Bill Clinton and at least four members of his administration.
A protected rainforest in one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots has suffered an alarming collapse in amphibians and reptiles, suggesting such havens may fail to slow the creatures’ slide towards global extinction. Conservationists in Costa Rica used records dating from 1970 to show that species of frogs, toads, lizards, snakes and salamanders have plummeted on average 75%.
The financier and philanthropist George Soros has entered the debate about United States policy on Israel, accusing George Bush’s administration of adopting a hopeless strategy towards the Palestinians partly because of the influence wielded in Washington by the pro-Israeli lobby.
A threat of High Court action has brought details of the release conditions of Tony Yengeni in the open, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday. The conditions include a liquor and drugs ban — but the former African National Congress chief whip shrugged off questions when asked to comment on Tuesday morning.
Black economic empowerment (BEE) in South Africa, climate change and Anglo American’s contribution to wider development are among the issues that are fundamental to the future of its business, Anglo chairperson Sir Mark Moody Stuart said on Tuesday at the group’s annual general meeting in London.
Hannah Botha, one of South Africa’s veteran actors and a star of M-Net’s soap opera Egoli, has died at the age of 84. Botha died in Johannesburg on the morning of April 16, Beeld newspaper reported. She was admitted to hospital at the weekend as she was not feeling well.