It is interesting, curious and instructive that our first stop on arrival on the actual island of Zanzibar was a bar/restaurant called "Mercury’s". This is a Euro-American establishment named after one of the island’s most famous sons — Freddie Mercury, lead singer and inspiration of the wildly successful British band Queen.
The BBC has admitted it was taken for a ride by a cabbie. The network apologised to its viewers for a studio mix-up that resulted in a cab driver appearing on live television as an expert on internet music downloads. "We interviewed the wrong person," a BBC spokesperson said on Monday while speaking on condition of anonymity in line with company policy.
Germany captain Michael Ballack has signed a three-year deal to play for English champions Chelsea, the club announced on Monday. Ballack, who has signed on a free transfer from Bayern Munich, was set to be unveiled at a Stamford Bridge press conference. The 29-year-old midfielder’s arrival had been confirmed by Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho on Sunday.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Monday defiantly refused even to enter a plea as charges were formally presented in a hearing that marked a new stage in his long-running trial. The chief judge read out charges implicating Saddam and the other defendants in the massacre of 148 Shi’ite villagers in the 1980s.
A Malawian court on Monday put Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha under house arrest for allegedly plotting to kill President Bingu wa Mutharika by hiring South African hitmen. Chilumpha will be ”confined to his official residence and will not leave his house without authority from the president” until the treason trial finishes, said high court judge Charles Mkandawire.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi blamed the opposition and the international community for a political crisis that has seen scores killed and jailed since elections a year ago. Meles, in an interview with British newspaper The Times published on Monday, said the opposition was encouraged by mixed signals from the international community.
Columns of feuding, heavily armed fighters patrolled the divided streets of Mogadishu’s northern Sisi neighbourhood on Monday after a week of the deadliest violence in the Somali capital for 15 years. Residents in Sisi, which has borne the brunt of the fighting that erupted a week ago, said it has been effectively carved into two distinct sections.
One of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial on Monday blamed police for the disappearance of two of his co-accused as police announced new and stringent security measures at the resumption of the trial. Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws disappeared from court during a lunch break two weeks ago.
An alleged coup plot against President Robert Mugabe was to be carried out in two phases with the first phase seeing the ouster of vice-president Joseph Msika and Zanu-PF chairperson John Nkomo, the High Court heard on Friday. The trial entered its fourth day on Friday.
European Union defence ministers were on Monday seeking to fill gaps in the military force they are planning to send to the Democratic Republic Congo in support of United Nations peacekeepers during key elections across the vast African nation.