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/ 18 October 2005
Football star George Weah faces a run-off against a former World Bank economist in the contest to become president of Liberia, as none of the candidates won an absolute majority in last week’s elections. With 90% of votes counted, Weah received 257 027, putting him at the front of a field of 22 candidates, while his closest rival, the Harvard-educated former finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, got 175 520.
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/ 18 October 2005
A leading rights group has warned that the special Iraqi tribunal set up with United States sponsorship to try Saddam Hussein may not be able to give the former dictator and his top aides a fair trial. Saddam, now 68, will be in on court on Wednesday along with three former top lieutenants and four regional officials of his Ba’ath Party.
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/ 18 October 2005
The trouble with revolutions is that they raise expectations. When revolutionary change fails to materialise, disillusion sets in. That is the case to some extent in former Soviet Georgia. And it is the problem confronting Viktor Yushchenko, elected Ukraine’s hero-president after last year’s ”orange revolution”.
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/ 18 October 2005
The Zambian government on Tuesday reacted angrily after the French ambassador said oil company Total was being used as a scapegoat for fuel shortages hitting the Southern African country. French-owned Total holds a 50% stake in Zambia’s only oil refinery, Indeni, which was shut down for maintenance in early September and only resumed operations last week.
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/ 18 October 2005
Authorities urged residents to be on alert as Tropical Storm Wilma’s outer edge neared the Cayman Islands on Monday, packing strong rain and wind as it cut a path that could threaten Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula or Cuba. The record-tying 21st named storm of the season was moving slowly through the north-western Caribbean.
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/ 18 October 2005
The wage strike at retail chain Clicks, owned by listed health and beauty group New Clicks Holdings, continued on Tuesday with Clicks management and members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union finally going into mediation as the stayaway entered its 12th day.
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/ 18 October 2005
The Department of Minerals and Energy has established an expert team to investigate the wider issues raised by a tremor that killed two miners and injured 20 others at DRDGold’s North West operations this year, it said on Tuesday. The panel will consider the risks to mine workers, mines and the public by seismicity in mining areas.
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/ 18 October 2005
A Pretoria High Court judge has at the last minute withdrawn his bid for a seat on the Constitutional Court, saying he thinks a woman should rather get the job. However, Judge Essop Patel’s decision also follows a series of letters to the Judicial Services Commission from an unsuccessful litigant who claims Patel is unfit for the job.
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/ 18 October 2005
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam on Monday rejected a call by United States President George Bush for Tripoli to spare the lives of five Bulgarian nurses who were sentenced to death in May last year. ”This is a legal matter which cannot be influenced by any political decision,” the minister said.
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/ 18 October 2005
Top seed Rafael Nadal will go easy on his tender left knee in training while vowing to take to the court for his matches at the €2,1-million Madrid Masters. The top seed is one of the last remaining big draws at an event hit by injury pull-outs by Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt and holder Marat Safin.