Hamza El Din, a musician and composer who helped popularise ancient traditional songs from North Africa, has died. He was 76. El Din died on Monday at Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley, said hospital spokesperson Carolyn Kemp. His wife, Nadra, told The New York Times the cause of death was complications after surgery.
Zimbabwe says an invitation to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is no longer valid following reports that Annan might use the visit to press President Robert Mugabe to step down after more than two decades in power. ”Zimbabwe is not a UN issue,” Mugabe spokesperson George Charamba was quoted as saying in state media on Thursday.
A well-known Australian climber given up for dead near the summit of Mount Everest may still be alive and rescuers are trying to reach him, a colleague said on Friday. Lincoln Hall (50) and one of Australia’s leading climbers, was reported by his Russian expedition leader earlier on Friday to have died on Thursday while descending from the summit of the world’s highest mountain.
The JSE was in positive territory in noon trade on Friday, boosted by a turnaround on world markets and a bounce in precious metals prices. While dealers were not convinced the strength would last, it was nevertheless welcomed after the recent weakness.
Yeehaw! Texans who brag they do things bigger and better now can go faster too. State transportation officials on Thursday boosted speed limits on two stretches of rural highway from 75mph (121kph) to 80mph (129kph) — the United States’s highest posted speed limit.
Scientists searching for the origin of HIV, the global pandemic infecting more than 40-million people, believe they have finally tracked its original source to two colonies of chimpanzees in a corner of Cameroon. The finding represents the culmination of a 10-year hunt for the source of the pandemic.
Israel has authorised the transfer of weapons to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel Army Radio reported on Friday. Defence Minister Amir Peretz made the decision after a ”rise” in intelligence alerts that radical or rival Palestinians could assassinate the moderate president, the radio said.
The house, on the outskirts of East Timor’s capital, was turned into a mere shell. The six people inside — five women and a child — were little more than burnt and broken skeletons. Attackers came in the middle of the night, broke the windows of the concrete dwelling, doused it in petrol and set it ablaze.
Former executives of Japan’s once-high-flying internet firm Livedoor admitted on Friday to fraud allegations as they went on trial for a scandal that rocked Japan’s financial and political circles. The four executives wore dark suits and looked humbly at the ground as prosecutors read charges of hiding financial losses.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will on Friday in a foreign-policy address at Georgetown University call for a return to a multilateral approach to global affairs built around a radically reformed United Nations led by a powerful secretary general, in a bid to salvage his legacy as a progressive leader on the world stage.