British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday discussed a compromise to stop Turkey’s bid to join the European Union from crashing next month. Ollie Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, on Tuesday gave Turkey a month to usher in far-reaching human rights reforms and open ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships.
The British government signalled on Tuesday the latest round of negotiations with Iran had failed and that it will begin a push within the next fortnight for targeted United Nations sanctions against Tehran. Iran has threatened to retaliate if sanctions are imposed.
Lawyers acting for Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who resigned after it was revealed he had sent sexually charged e-mails to teenage boys, said on Tuesday that the politician had been abused by a member of the clergy as a teenager. No details of the alleged abuse were given, other than that Foley, who is a Roman Catholic, was between 13 and 15 years old at the time of the abuse.
Five foreigners working for United States oil company Exxon Mobil have been kidnapped and two Nigerians killed in an attack in the volatile Niger Delta region, an industry source said on Wednesday. The five, whose nationalities were unknown, were seized late on Tuesday by armed men who attacked an oil installation at Eket, in the southern state of Akwa Ibom.
The International Cricket Council’s Champions Trophy begins on Saturday amid greater anticipation than usual with the tournament acting as the first leg of an exciting six months of cricket, highlighted by the Ashes and next year’s World Cup. World champions Australia start as favourites, as they have in every one-day tournament over the last decade.
South Africa faced a beast with two heads — greed and drunkenness for power, business magnate Saki Macozoma said on Tuesday. Macozoma, who is also a member of the African National Congress’s National Executive Committee , was speaking at a Cape Town seminar organised by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
The rebel soldier sprawls on a rock, languidly pulls off his boots and reaches into a twine bag to grab a packet of biscuits. ”You’re just looking for war stories,” the 36-year-old Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel says when I ask him where he got a dozen scars around his ankle. It’s true, I am, and he doesn’t take the bait.
The remains of one of the few white colonists still held in regard in Africa were reinterred on Tuesday in a glass and marble mausoleum in the city named after him, Brazzaville. The body of the Franco-Italian explorer Pierre de Brazza was exhumed in Algeria last week and flown to the capital of the Congo.
South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni’s positive stance on cheap Chinese and Indian goods and services remained unchanged on Tuesday in the face of government and trade union criticism. Mboweni was labelled ”irresponsible” by Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi earlier in the day.
The killer who shot dead five girls in a one-room Amish schoolhouse was haunted by guilt over his sexual assault of two young female relatives 20 years ago and dreamed he would abuse again, it emerged on Tuesday. Suicide notes, cellphone conversations and the debris left behind at the schoolhouse produced a chilling portrait of the man responsible for the deadly shootings, Charles Roberts IV.