World leaders must speak out to help pull Zimbabwe out of a political and economic quagmire, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said on Thursday. ” … this is not the time for silent diplomacy,” the authors wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
Bookings for the Easter holidays have not been seriously affected by storm damage along KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) coastline, the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) said on Thursday. Fedhasa’s East Coast chairperson, Alan Vels, said: ”There has been no impact in Durban. In fact there seems to be a curiosity factor more than anything else.”
A Nigerian presidential candidate died on Thursday, local radio and television stations reported, casting doubt over whether landmark elections will be held as scheduled next month. Adebayo Adefarati (76), candidate of the opposition Alliance for Democracy, died in the south-western state of Ondo, private radio Ray Power FM reported.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Thursday the creation of a new national security department to fight terrorism as part of a radical overhaul of the beleaguered Interior Ministry. Under the plan announced by Blair in a written statement to Parliament, the ministry known as the Home Office will be split into two departments.
Global Positioning System coordinates of two British boats seized with 15 sailors were changed by Iran to make it appear they were in Iranian waters, Britain’s United Nations envoy said on Thursday.The 15 Britons were captured on Friday in the northern Gulf in what Iran insists were its territorial waters but Britain says they were picked up in Iraqi waters.
A reconsideration of name changes may be on the cards after a court reversed the renaming of Louis Trichardt in Limpopo, the Freedom Front Plus said on Thursday. ”The decision means the proposed name changing of Pretoria to Tshwane and Potchefstroom to Tlokwe will in all likelihood be placed on ice,” said party leader Pieter Mulder.
Arab leaders on Thursday endorsed a peace plan to end a decades-old conflict with Israel and the Palestinian president warned of more violence if the ”hand of peace” was rejected. Speaking at the end of an Arab summit in Riyadh, Mahmoud Abbas urged Israel not to waste the chance for peace, and called for a committee led by Saudi Arabia to pursue it.
Judgement was reserved on Thursday on further applications made in an interdict to suspend the election of new office bearers by an African National Congress (ANC) regional conference. Judge Corne van Zyl in the Bloemfontein High Court reserved judgement until April 4 after hearing argument on an application by 17 people wanting to join the original applicants in the matter.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) have vowed to campaign for a change in the way the tripartite alliance operates. They said on Thursday the status quo in the alliance — comprising Cosatu, the SACP and the ruling African National Congress — encouraged opportunism.
Ethiopia accused Eritrea on Thursday of arming anti-Ethiopian rebels and urged the United Nations to take action against its long-time Horn of Africa foe. Eritrean officials were not immediately available to comment, but always deny such allegations. Addis Ababa and Asmara have routinely fired harsh rhetoric at each other since a 1998 to 2000 border war.