Africa will take centre stage at this week’s G8 summit in Scotland where debate is likely to reflect differing notions of who is primarily responsible for eradicating poverty — those who have or those who have not. The outcome of that debate could well determine the success or failure of the gathering and of British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spirited campaign to prick the world’s conscience.
United Kingdom university student Eleanor de Kanter gave up seeing pop singers U2 and Madonna to visit a South African township and be part of the Africa Standing Tall Against Poverty concert in conjunction with Live8 in Newtown, Johannesburg, on Saturday.
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity but an act of justice, former president and freedom icon Nelson Mandela said.
”I was walking down Via Guerzoni with my little girl and I saw a man with a long beard and a djellaba being stopped by two westerners. They were asking him, in Italian, for his documents, the way the police do,” the witness said. ”At the junction with Via Croce Viola there was a pale-coloured van on the pavement,” she continued. ”Then, all I heard was a loud noise like a thud.”
Construction of the high-speed train connecting Johannesburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg International airport will begin ”today”, Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Saturday. He also announced Bombela, a French-Canadian-South African consortium, as the preferred bidder for the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project (Gautrain).
The African National Congress (ANC) has reaffirmed its character as a national liberation movement, it emerged on Saturday from the party’s national general council (NGC) meeting in Pretoria. ”As the ANC, we remain a national liberation movement,” deputy secretary-general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele told reporters.
Flyhalf Daniel Carter scored two tries among 33 individual points to lead the All Blacks to a 48-18 win over the British and Irish Lions in the second rugby Test Saturday and a 2-0 victory in the three-Test series. Carter produced his most potent performance in the number 10 jersey for New Zealand, outshining his famous opposite Jonny Wilkinson who contributed only eight points before leaving the match with an injured shoulder.
A 59-year-old Japanese psychiatric counselor set a world record of sorts on Sunday by reciting ”pi,” or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, to 83 431 digits. ”I thank you all for your support,” Akira Haraguchi told reporters and onlookers when he finished the overnight 13-hour feat at a public hall in Kisarazu in Tokyo’s southern suburbs at 1.26am.
Grammy award winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as Here and Now and Any Love sold more than 25-million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died on Friday. He was 54.
When Roger Federer clinched his latest berth in the Wimbledon final, he tossed his sweaty bandanna toward the crowd, leaving a mussed moptop as he walked off Centre Court. Unruly hairdo aside, the top-ranked Federer looked impeccable on Friday as he beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the semifinals.