The European Union on Wednesday suspended talks on forging closer ties with Serbia, punishing Belgrade for failing to cooperate fully with UN prosecutors hunting Ratko Mladic and other war-crimes fugitives. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the talks on a stabilisation and association agreement — a precursor to any membership talks — were postponed mainly because Mladic, the former Bosnian-Serb commander wanted for genocide, remained at large.
Sales of new vehicles continued to grow in April despite public holidays and therefore fewer trading days, the National Automobile Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (Naamsa) said on Wednesday. Aggregate new-vehicle sales were at 45 636 units, Naamsa said in a media statement.
Climate change and improvements in the technological efficiency of South Africa’s fishing fleets have led to catches hitting an historical low over the past year, says the Department of Environmental Affairs. Reduced catches had resulted in fewer jobs and unemployment was ”rife” in the industry, marine and coastal management deputy director general Dr Monde Mayekiso told a media briefing in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Nepal’s Cabinet declared a ceasefire on Wednesday with Maoist rebels and urged them to open peace talks with the government, Deputy Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli said. Terrorism-related charges will be dropped against the insurgents, and the government will end its designation of the Maoists as a terrorist group.
A new documentary film screened this week in Toronto about author Dan Brown’s hugely popular The Da Vinci Code reveals a widespread dissatisfaction with organised religion, the director told Agence France-Presse. ”This was a spiritual road trip, a search for meaning,” said Emmy award-winning veteran director Jonathan Stack at the packed screening of his film Secrets of the Code.
Israel’s 12th Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has courted early disapproval for a weak coalition few believe can redraw the borders of the Jewish state. A veteran nationalist, who like his coma-stricken predecessor Ariel Sharon, underwent a sea change in his views in late career, Olmert has vowed to guide the nation on the path to peace.
Counseling and a drug that blocks the brain’s pleasure receptors can effectively treat alcoholism without the expense of checking into specialised clinics, said a study released on Tuesday. ”Medical care works, and alcoholics don’t need to check into a specialty treatment programme to get it,” said Robert Swift, an author of the report.
A United States Congress-mandated commission called on the government to take "aggressive action" against Saudi Arabia for alleged religious-freedom violations and warned that religious rights were under threat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nick Mallett could help England retain the World Cup next year after the South African expressed interest in the newly created role of director of elite rugby at the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Mallett, currently director of rugby at Western Province, was quoted as saying he would be interested in any approach from the RFU concerning a role in which he would work alongside England’s head coach, Andy Robinson.
The international threat of terrorism has created a need for customs officials to balance security checks and the free flow of business, a South African Revenue Service commissioner said on Wednesday. In the United States, for example, there was a proposal that containers bound for there be cleared by their country of origin first.