Africa’s vast arable lands have the potential to rival top agricultural nations like the United States in supplying biofuels to a world seeking cleaner energy sources. But using land reserved for food production to supply biofuel demand could squeeze food supplies in a region vulnerable to shortages.
World markets match buyers and sellers for goods as different as oil and wheat or cars and computers. Why not for human organs like kidneys? Strong demand for life-saving transplants and short supply of organs has raised ethical issues about whether humans should be treated like vessels to provide spare parts.
They watch MTV, surf the web, have iPods, play video games and eat at fast-food restaurants. And, no, they’re not your average United States teenager, but people over the age of 100 who shared the secrets of their longevity for a study released on Tuesday by Evercare, a health provider for the elderly in the United States.
SA Rugby on Tuesday confirmed media reports about an incident in which Springbok Sevens coach Paul Treu was racially abused by a group of South Africans during the Hong Kong Sevens tournament last weekend. SA Rugby said it had contacted Treu to get a first-hand account of what took place. The coach had confirmed the incident and provided details of what happened.
Zimbabwean police and troops fanned out through impoverished townships on Tuesday on the first day of a two-day national strike called to protest deepening economic hardships blamed on the government. Four trucks carrying soldiers were seen headed to the southern town of Chitungwiza, 25km from Harare.
A Briton lost his appeal on Tuesday against extradition to the United States for allegedly hacking into US defence computers in what has been dubbed the "biggest military hack of all time". Gary McKinnon said he was searching for evidence of UFOs when he hacked into US computers and was not intending to disrupt security.
Malaysia’s deputy premier has told the country’s civil servants they need to work harder and spend more time at their desks, according to a report on Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a gathering of civil servants, who are frequently criticised for their seven-hour days, to condition their minds to see work as a virtue, not a punishment.
A suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded around 150 in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Monday in the latest attack by insurgents using explosives-laden trucks. Insurgents have hit a string of northern towns in the past 10 days in bombings that have killed hundreds of people.
Iraqi militants holding a German woman and her adult son hostage said on Tuesday they were giving Germany a new deadline of 10 days to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or the two would be killed. The group had issued an earlier ultimatum on March 10 that it would kill the pair if Berlin failed to pull out its troops from Afghanistan.
China and Sudan have agreed to strengthen military ties, state media reported, underscoring the two countries’ close and controversial cooperation as some Western nations seek United Nations action over bloodshed in Darfur. In Darfur, over 200 000 people are believed to have died and about 2,5-million have been driven from their homes.