Iran’s defence minister warned the United States on Monday it would suffer a ”disgraceful defeat” if it took military action against the Islamic republic, the official Irna news agency reported. ”If the US chooses the military option, a disgraceful defeat worse than the failure in Tabas desert awaits them,” Mostafa Mohammad Najar said, referring to a failed US attempt in 1980 to rescue American hostages in the seized US embassy in Tehran.
Ehud Olmert was facing a revolt on Monday in the ranks of his Kadima party with senior figures furious at losing out on key portfolios to Labour rivals as the new Israeli coalition government is drawn. Newspaper headlines made uncomfortable reading for the prime minister designate with a number of top Kadima candidates in last month’s election accusing him of reneging on agreements.
A rebel group issued a warning on Monday to companies that are looking to develop natural gas fields in a contested area of Ethiopia, saying any investment that benefits the Ethiopian government ”will not be tolerated”. The Ogaden National Liberation Front, which wants an independent state in Ethiopia for ethnic Somalis, said a pipeline ”in what is essentially a combat zone is far from reality”.
A senior United States diplomat arrived in Chad’s capital on Monday to meet with officials about a dispute between the government and the World Bank over how the country uses oil royalties — a dispute that has the government threatening to shut off oil supplies by the week’s end.
Sanlam, South Africa’s second-largest life insurer, has confirmed it is examining a possible acquisition of the United Kingdom life insurance business of General Electric (GE) as one of several opportunities for enhancing its capital efficiency. In a statement on Monday, Sanlam said, however, that its evaluation of the GE business was at an "embryonic stage".
United Kingdom’s public finances chalked up the worst deficit in 12 years during the 2005/2006 fiscal year, official data showed on Monday, dealing a blow to Finance Minister Gordon Brown’s forecasts. Economists said that the worsening state of the public purse pointed towards likely tax hikes or public-spending cuts in the near future.
The crackdown on leaks at the Central Intelligence Agency that led to the dismissal of a veteran employee last week included an unusual lie detector test for CIA Inspector General John Helgerson, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The South Africa government has condemned an attack on Cape Town mayor Helen Zille during the disruption of a meeting over the weekend. ”Government condemns this kind of behaviour without qualification. Our Constitution guarantees free political activity for all parties and individuals,” government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said on Monday.
South African Airways will introduce a daily service on its route between Johannesburg and Washington-Dulles International airport. As a result, it will discontinue its daily service to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport. The airline’s route between Johannesburg and Washington was launched at the end of June 2005 with four flights a week, including an operational fuel stop in Accra, Ghana.
A former leading CIA official said on Sunday that the White House deliberately ignored intelligence that showed that there were no weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Tyler Drumheller, who was once the highest-ranking CIA officer in Europe, told CBS’s 60 Minutes programme that the White House shifted its focus to regime change in the months before the invasion.