Somalia’s interim government agreed on Tuesday to attend new peace talks with the country’s powerful Islamists, responding to a United Nations drive to avoid war in the Horn of Africa country. ”We will go to Khartoum without any preconditions,” said Abdirizak Adam, interim President Abdullahi Yusuf’s chief of staff.
Opposition protesters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rampaged down a main highway into Kinshasa on Tuesday, tearing down election posters and demanding the postponement of historic polls scheduled for Sunday. The several hundred demonstrators clashed with riot police who beat them with batons.
The so-called ”Waterkloof Four” will know their fate in November after their sentencing was postponed again in the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday. The four — Christoff Becker, Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tied — were found guilty last year of the apparently racist murder of an unidentified man and the assault of another in 2001.
Israeli forces battled to take over a second Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon on Tuesday in intensifying ground clashes with the guerrillas’ frontier garrison, sources on both sides said. Calling Bint Jbeil ”one of the major Hezbollah centres”, an Israeli military spokesperson said tanks and troops had sealed off the town.
Trade union Solidarity, in a submission to the Competition Tribunal on Tuesday, said it was greatly concerned about the fact that mining company Kumba Resources’ workers were not consulted on the process of unbundling Kumba. Kumba spokesperson Trevor Arran wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Jimmy Connors spent three consecutive years as the World number one, so he has a good idea of what it is going to take for fellow American Andy Roddick to return to that lofty perch. Hall of Famer Connors and Roddick announced on Monday a link-up between the two former World number ones that is designed to end Roddick’s struggles.
While listed property recorded a whopping 38% growth last year, it has fallen by 22,8% since reaching a peak on May 5 this year, prompting investors to reconsider this investment avenue. However, Mariette Warner, head of property funds at Stanlib, South Africa’s largest unit trust company, said further big knocks in the coming weeks are unlikely.
Trade union Solidarity on Tuesday announced its decision to join the Confederation of South African Workers’ Unions (Consawu). Consawu, which was founded in March 2003, currently has 23 trade unions as members, of which Solidarity is the largest group. Consawu’s total membership is almost 290 000 members.
Coal — the doomed energy resource, great polluter and contributor to global warming — might just have a brighter future. This is if a new technology that captures carbon dioxide from coal plants can be fine-tuned in the next few years. South Africa has an abundance of coal, but the environmental problems coal plants cause is dampening the future of the mineral.
Former France captain Michel Platini has confirmed his candidacy for the presidency of European soccer’s governing body. French soccer federation chief Jean-Pierre Escalettes officially announced Platini’s candidacy in a letter on Monday to Uefa secretary general Lars-Christer Olsson. The elections will be held in January 2007.