Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday blamed Lebanon for the capture of two soldiers by the Hezbollah militia, branding the attack an "act of war" and threatening a "painful" response. He ruled out any negotiations with Hezbollah in a bid to free the servicemen, snatched on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Gunmen stormed a bus station north-east of Baghdad on Wednesday and seized 24 people, killing all but four of them, authorities said. An Iraqi general said the victims were Shi’ites, but police said their identities were unclear. The gunmen arrived in several cars at the bus station in Muqdadiyah at about 6am.
A Kremlin public-relations blitz ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit and an apparent softening of Washington’s stance have failed to disguise an ill-tempered debate gnawing at the heart of East-West relations: is Russia democratic? By some counts, cooperation between Russia and its G8 partners is in rude health ahead of the summit.
Six major South African businesses will officially back the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, the local organising committee announced in Pretoria on Wednesday. First National Bank has already announced that it will sponsor the soccer extravaganza to the tune of -million (about R212,7-million).
The entourage of Nigerian Vice-President Abubakar Atiku has alleged there is a plot to bar him from contesting next year’s presidential election by trying to implicate him in a corruption probe involving a prominent telecoms businessman who is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
South Africa coach Jake White compared the pressure on his team to that faced by soccer superpower Brazil on Wednesday as he named two debutants for the Tri-Nations clash against Australia this weekend. Uncertainty over White’s future overshadowed the team announcement for Saturday’s match.
As the charismatic, 41-year-old Jurgen Klinsmann on Wednesday stunned about 82-million Germans by declaring he was stepping down as national soccer coach after a tenure of two years, South African observers in Germany gathering ideas for the hosting of the 2010 World Cup were echoing the sentiment: ”Where can Bafana find another Klinsmann?”
A senior Ugandan official on Wednesday urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to quash its war-crimes indictments against the leaders of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, in a bid to encourage the rebels into peace talks with the government in Kampala. The peace talks had been due to start in southern Sudan on Wednesday.
Liberia will not be seeking fresh aid from donors at a conference it is hosting but ideas on how to hasten its post-war reconstruction, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on Wednesday. ”We are not going to ask for pledges,” Johnson-Sirleaf told delegates from major international financial organisations in the capital, Monrovia.
Police in central Zimbabwe have arrested an official from the pro-democracy National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) as the group began muted protests in several cities, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Police in Masvingo city arrested Raymond Muzenda, the NCA’s chairperson for the region.