Sweden’s acting foreign minister, Carin Jamtin, has been barred from visiting Sudan’s western region of Darfur, Swedish media reported on Wednesday. Jamtin said she was notified of the decision on her arrival to Sudan late on Tuesday, and was told that the decision was linked to security concerns over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Shouts of ”Allah Akbar!” (God is greatest) rent the air in parts of Kaduna, northern Nigeria on Wednesday as a four-minute eclipse turned daylight into darkness. Many residents ran indoors before the eclipse started. Some did so for fear of looking at the phenomenon directly and damaging their eyes.
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The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday denied former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s application to be discharged on a rape count. Judge Willem van der Merwe said he could not agree that evidence led by the state was of such a poor quality that it could not be accepted. ”The accused is not entitled to his discharge,” he said.
Telkom employees returned to work on Wednesday after a two-day wage strike, the company said. ”They are back,” said company spokesperson Lulu Letlape. All that remained was for trade unions Solidarity and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) to contact Telkom about its revised profit-sharing and wage offer made on Friday.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas arrives in South Africa on Thursday for talks with President Thabo Mbeki following elections that have shaken up the political landscape in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The new Kadima party of Ehud Olmert won elections in Israel on Tuesday, trouncing the right-wing Likud party.
Sony’s painful restructuring drive is progressing well but reform efforts are still at an early stage, the group’s president said in an interview published on Wednesday. "I think we’ve made sizable progress in regaining confidence and improving earnings but in my mind, our reform is still in its early stages," said Ryoji Chubachi.
A purse containing a $1-million worth of jewellery was on its way back to its owner in Canada on Tuesday after being forgotten on a bench in a town near San Francisco. Shahla Ghannadian had entrusted her $2 000 Louis Vuitton handbag and its precious contents to her husband after they stopped at an ice cream parlour in the city of Sausalito on Sunday
The Beatles’ record company Apple Corps re-entered battle with Apple Computer at London’s High Court on Wednesday, accusing it of breaching a trademark agreement by promoting music products. The dispute centres on Apple Computer’s revolutionary iTunes online music store, which allows users of its iPod to download and save songs through the internet.
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The medical report of Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser contained no proof of rape, his lawyer Kemp J Kemp told the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. ”She reported the incident in terms which clearly did not describe it as rape,” Kemp submitted in final argument during his application for his client’s discharge.
Excited schoolchildren peered skyward on Wednesday in Ghana, joining others around the world for a long-anticipated solar show — the first total eclipse in years, which will sweep north-east from Brazil to Mongolia. Throngs milled around on the beach in Ghana, in West Africa, trading protective eyewear among them.