Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered the arrest of aides to former Liberian president Charles Taylor, fuelling Tuesday’s rumours that Liberia’s former head, now living in exile in Nigeria, has escaped from his residence in the southern town of Calabar. Remi Oyo, spokesperson to Obasanjo, said that the Nigerian government had ordered the aides’ immediate arrest.
White House chief of staff Andrew Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget chief Joshua Bolten, President George Bush said Tuesday. Bush has come under intense pressure in recent weeks, including from within his own Republican Party, to shake up his White House staff amid a sharp slump in his personal-approval ratings.
Clinical trials are pulling in up to R2-billion a year into South Africa, yet researchers fear the industry may be compromised by the slowness of regulatory authorities to approve, or reject, potential trials. The issue was thrown into relief by an incident in the United Kingdom, when six clinical trial subjects ended up in intensive care after being injected with a part mouse, part human monoclonal antibody.
Two of the unions representing striking Telkom workers urged the parastatal on Tuesday to reissue an offer it retracted on Monday in order to overcome a deadlock in wage negotiations. ”We need to make it clear that there is no change in the unions’ stance as regards the offer that was put to us on Friday and then retracted.”
Harbhajan Singh celebrated his comeback with a superb all-round show to guide India to a 39-run victory over England in the first one-dayer in New Delhi on Tuesday. The offspinner, who missed a one-day series in Pakistan last month due to a finger injury, finished with 5-31 as India defended their modest total of 203 by dismissing England for 164.
Former Liberian leader and war-crimes suspect Charles Taylor has disappeared from the villa in which he was living in exile in Nigeria, the Nigerian Presidency said in a statement on Tuesday. The statement said Taylor had left his house in Calabar some time on Monday night and President Olusegun Obasanjo had set up a panel to investigate.
Ethiopia on Tuesday accused its bitter rival Eritrea of trying to foment unrest a day after one person was killed and 15 injured in a series of bombings here. ”The wish of the Eritrean government is to see a divided or at least much weakened Ethiopia,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) long-delayed elections have been pushed back again, at least week beyond the earlier scheduled June 18 date, an Electoral Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday. The vote is to be the first in decades in this sprawling and war-ravaged Central African country.
Martin Bryant, the millionaire loner who slaughtered 35 people at a scenic Australian spot in 1996, has fulfilled the prediction of psychologists and is settling into his 10th year in prison as a lifeless hulk. ”Martin is like a zombie,” his mother, Carleen Bryant, told The Bulletin magazine in a story published on Tuesday.
A police officer’s flat was firebombed in Swaziland in the first such incident since the release on bail of 16 opposition members accused of staging a string of arson attacks, an official said on Tuesday. The attack on Monday targeted an apartment in eastern Swaziland, about 200km from the capital, Mbabane, police said.