Nigeria’s first national headcount in 15 years headed into a second day on Wednesday amid clashes between police and vigilantes, attacks on counters and protests by disgruntled census workers. Nigeria is recognised as Africa’s most populous country but has never conducted an uncontested census.
One of Italy’s top executives was caught speeding on a motorway in northern Italy at 311kph while trying out his new car, the press reported on Saturday. Riccardo Ruggiero runs Telecom Italia, the country’s main telecoms operator with a turnover of €30-billion last year.
Polish education inspectors have banned a CD with a painting by Hieronymus Bosch reproduced on its cover from being distributed in schools, saying the picture, entitled <i>Hell</i>, could harm young people. "There are pornographic scenes in the Bosch picture that can damage people," said one school inspector.
Calls for abortion laws across Africa to be revised have dominated the first days of a meeting in Ethiopia — the Regional Consultation on Unsafe Abortion in Africa. More than 140 researchers, key government officials and health practitioners from 16 African countries have gathered in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Mohammad Yousuf scored a stylish half-century on Wednesday to propel Pakistan to a comfortable four-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the third limited-overs international and a series sweep. Yousuf backed up Shahid Afridi’s haul of 3-37, and knocks of 46 runs each by opening batsmen Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat.
The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) says it fears people will stop donating blood after one of its employees told a donor recently that she was HIV-positive as a "joke". Nicolette Duda, communications officer for the SANBS, said on Wednesday: "We definitely don’t want this thing in the media now."
The head boy of a rural high school in the northern Free State has lost his title after allegedly sexually harassing schoolgirls, Die Volksblad newspaper reported on Wednesday. The boy among other things apparently sent photographs of himself naked to some of these girls with his cellphone, according to the report.
Most of the world is on target to reduce the impact of tuberculosis (TB), but efforts have yet to bear fruit in Africa where the disease goes hand in hand with Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. In its annual report on the global impact of TB, the WHO said the disease claimed 1,7-million lives in 2004.
The European Union approved on Wednesday a blacklist of nearly 100 airlines considered to be unsafe, nearly all of which will be banned from EU skies, officials said. Most of the carriers are based in Africa and there are blanket bans on airlines from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Swaziland.
The armed Basque separatist organisation ETA announced on Wednesday it is declaring a permanent ceasefire, a condition set by Spain’s government for the opening of talks with the group. Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the government hopes the ceasefire means the ”beginning of the end” of violence.