Young people today are better educated than any previous generation, but 130-million youths are still illiterate, more than half a billion live on less than a day, and a record 88-million are unemployed, according to a United Nations report. The report highlights the stark differences in the lives and opportunities of young people in poor African and Asian nations and richer Western countries.
Seeking to close a gap in the nation’s defence against mad cow disease, George Bush’s administration is proposing to eliminate cow brains and spinal cords from feed for all animals, including chickens, pigs and pets. The US government already bans virtually all cattle remains from cattle feed.
Police in Idaho in the United States have arrested a man suspected of trying to peddle his HIV-infected blood to a blood bank when he knew he was carrying the deadly virus. Officers in Boise, the capital of the largely agricultural western state, arrested 22-year-old Kyle Rich for knowingly attempting to transfer bodily fluids infected with human immunodeficiency virus.
For many survivors of Bali’s devastating 2002 nightclub bombings, last weekend’s suicide blasts have reignited painful memories and fears they have struggled to suppress. ”I lived it once again. After a long time, I feel the trauma again,” said Gatot Indro Suranto, who was hit with the full force of the car bomb that exploded in the Kuta tourist district on October 12 2002.
English Ashes hero Kevin Pietersen is braced for a rollicking reception from Australian crowds when he strides out for the World XI in the Super Series commencing on Wednesday. After dropping six catches in the recent Ashes series, Pietersen said the crowd was ”going nuts” as he successfully took a catch from local hero Michael Klinger.
Beers is aiming to increase its core earnings by 30% to -billion by stimulating demand and pushing up prices, reports the Antwerp Diamond High Council, in its Antwerp Facets magazine. It also aims to raise the value of the group to -billion by 2009. While it did not disclose current value, it provided a figure of ,3-billion when the firm was taken into private hands four years ago.
Botswana’s police commissioner said on Tuesday that officers had fired rubber bullets to disperse a group of about 35 Bushmen protesting their eviction from ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The Basarwa tribesmen had been trying to break through blockades and enter the reserve on Saturday, police commissioner Edwin Batshu said.
Calm returned to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after deadly internecine clashes and police protests over dire insecurity problems, as Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian mother of five in the West Bank. ”Things are calm and we hope that everyone will respect the law and public order,” said interior ministry spokesperson Tawfiq Abu Khossa.
A new war of words erupted between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Tuesday sparked by the recent establishment of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco). The ANC rejected as ”preposterous” an assertion by IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi that the ruling party was behind the birth of the new party.
The closure of the Pretoria suburb where President Thabo Mbeki and Cabinet ministers live has nothing to do with the Presidency. The municipality said on Tuesday: ”The closure and rezoning of streets in Bryntirion has nothing to do with the erection of booms, as reported in some sections of the media.”