The African Union on Monday gave two hold-out Darfur rebel groups a 24-hour deadline to sign a peace deal with Khartoum or face United Nations sanctions. AU commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said the pan-African body would ask the UN Security Council to slap sanctions on the the two groups unless they signed the deal by Tuesday.
Cellular services provider MTN Group has recorded a 55% year-on-year growth in subscribers in its operations to 24 185 000, the company said in a statement on Monday. This represents a 4% increase since the last reported period ended December 31 2005, the group said.
Police in the Zimbabwean capital Harare have rounded up more than 10Â 000 squatters and street children and plan to send them to rural areas, reports said on Monday. Under a fresh clean-up operation codenamed Round-Up, the police netted 10Â 224 people, many of them vagrants, touts and what the authorities call ”disorderly elements”.
The road to peace in Sudan’s strife-torn western region of Darfur remains long, experts say, with deep tribal differences yet to be overcome and a near-impossible disarmament task. A peace agreement was reached ten days ago in Abuja between the Sudanese government and the largest faction of the main Darfur rebel group, raising hopes of an end to the bloodshed.
As Mount Merapi starts to spew deadly heat clouds down its flank, fear is beginning to grip residents living in the shadow of the rumbling volcano. The appearance of the ”shaggy goats”, as the locals call the searing clouds of volcanic gases, ash and dust, brings back terrible memories of Merapi’s last eruption in November 1994.
A 62-year-old retired man plans to travel from his hometown in Portugal to Germany by bicycle in order to attend the 2006 World Cup, which gets underway on June 9. Jose Fortunato left Vila Franca de Xira, some 30km north-east of Lisbon, on Sunday and he expects to arrive in Munich, which will host the opening game of the 64-match tournament, on June 8.
![]()
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma should only be allowed to return to office once his name has been cleared by the courts, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. The ANC is expected to issue a statement on Zuma’s role within the party later on Monday after its national executive committee met to decide whether he should resume his official duties.
The case against two men for the rape and murder of three Mamelodi girls was postponed in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday. The two men were arrested in early May in connection with the discovery of the half-naked bodies of three high-school pupils, dumped behind a shopping complex in Mamelodi.
England finally saw the back of Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene to move to the brink of victory in the first Test at Lord’s on Sunday. At stumps on the fourth day the tourists, following-on, were 381-6 in reply to England’s first-innings 551-6 – a lead of just 22 runs after bad light ended play for the day.
The JSE was down 2% at midday on Monday, following a more than 5% drop in both gold and platinum miners. Traders said the local bourse was following world markets, which were under pressure, while lower commodities prices were also weighing on sentiment.