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/ 24 October 2005
Diplomats and civil society activists fear the second round of voting in Liberia’s first elections since the end of the civil war will spark a flurry of behind-the-scenes deal-making that could compromise the new government. The National Electoral Commission announced that former football star George Weah and ex-World Bank official Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will face off for the presidency on November 8.
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/ 24 October 2005
Scientists working in Antarctica have discovered an alarming rise in sea temperature that threatens to disrupt populations of penguins, whales, seals and a host of smaller creatures within a few decades. The new study shows the ocean west of the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed by more than a degree since the 1960s
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/ 24 October 2005
The story of Europe’s pampered cows is a familiar one but always worth retelling. Each head of cattle in Europe gets a subsidy from the taxpayer worth ,20 a day at a time when half the world’s population — three billion people in all — scrapes by on an income of less that that.
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/ 24 October 2005
Europe is on high alert after Greece became the first European Union country to confirm a case of bird flu. Greek Minister of Agriculture Evangelos Basiakos reported the case on a turkey farm on the Aegean Sea island of Oinouses, near the coast of Turkey, on Tuesday last week.
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/ 24 October 2005
”South Africa is in the grip of national controversy over so-called delivery problems associated with the new push for public infrastructure investment. This controversy is to be welcomed. The infrastructure-investment initiative is of huge economic importance, and it is crucial that it not fail,” writes Don Ross, professor of economics at the University of Cape Town.
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/ 24 October 2005
”Opposition parties and the media often portray municipal managers as a bunch of inefficient, incompetent and useless idiots who have no interests in the communities they serve. Your article (‘Fat cats take the cream’) is no exception and I object strongly,” writes Khayo Mpungose, the municipal manager of the Ugu District municipality.
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/ 24 October 2005
A recent report suggesting that 5% of adult South Africans belong to a labour union has annoyed Congress of South African Trade Unions economist Neva Makgetla. She argued recently that ”Afrobarometer’s data diverges significantly from that of the government’s Labour Force Survey, which found almost three million union members in March 2005. That comes to 10% of adults.”
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/ 23 October 2005
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh says he felt betrayed by a drinking culture and let down by his brother Mark and Ian Healy on his first cricket tour in charge of the Australian cricket team. Waugh takes aims at several high-profile Australian cricket figures, including Shane Warne and Ian Chappell in his autobiography, Out Of My Comfort Zone.
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/ 23 October 2005
Robert Pires fired Arsenal to a 1-0 win over Manchester City on Saturday but was then forced to publicly apologise after he squandered the opportunity to seal victory with his second penalty of the game. The France winger had already netted one second-half spot-kick, after Thierry Henry had been felled by David James, when Arsenal were awarded a second with 16 minutes remaining for a foul on Dennis Bergkamp.