While China is keen to stress the environmentally friendly aspects of the new railway to Tibet, many are concerned about the line’s impact on the Himalayan region’s fragile ecosystem. China has said 1,54-billion yuan (-million) was spent on railway-related projects to protect the environment, such as 33 crossings especially arranged for the Tibetan antelope, a protected species.
Wearing a green Hamas headband, waving a Hamas flag, swinging a Kalashnikov and chanting for Israel’s demise, Bassem Shorah looks to be a prototypical Palestinian militant. His olive green shirt, however, tells a different story. It’s a spot-on replica of those worn by soldiers in the United States Army, replete with combat patches and unit designations.
No less than a quarter of annual development aid — about -billion — is being used by donor countries to fund technical assistance of sometimes dubious worth, says ActionAid International in a new report. The study, titled Real Aid 2, was launched on Wednesday by the Johannesburg-based NGO.
International companies and local elites in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are pocketing revenues from copper and cobalt production instead of sharing it with local communities or spending it to reduce poverty, a watchdog group charged this week.
Going into the African Union summit in Banjul, The Gambia, Zimbabwe’s beleaguered President Robert Mugabe already knew that he would once again escape censure by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights for his controversial slum clearance plan that displaced more than 700 000 people.
The European Union (EU) executive commission hopes to convince member states to spend more than â,¬6-billion on regional infrastructure in Africa from 2008 to 2013, a Commission official said. The executive has drawn up maps of road, energy, water and information technology networks in Africa, highlighting missing links which could be closed with EU financing, the official said.
My introduction to Swaziland was a curious one – no one at the Oshoek border post seemed sure exactly how many wives the Kingdom’ ruler, King Mswati III, actually has. The man at the immigration desk reckoned it was 13.
Guests from the rest of Africa always ask: Where are the black people? Answering these questions goes to the heart of transforming the city. The Cape Town Festival returns to the theme of its debut in 1999. Iain Harris asks, how far have we come?
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Zinedine Zidane fired France into their second World Cup final appearance in eight years on Wednesday, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal. The French captain shattered Portugal’s dreams of a first appearance in the final after coolly converting a hotly disputed penalty midway through the first half at the 62Â 000-seat Allianz Arena.
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