Merck & Co might consider settling some lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx, whose links to heart trouble have spawned thousands of lawsuits and a $253-million jury verdict, a spokesperson for the company’s legal team said on Friday. The company has previously said it would fight all personal-injury litigation over the drug’s harmful side effects.
Eritrea has ordered a United States aid group operating in the country to halt its activities saying it was ”uncomfortable” with the group’s continued presence. Scott DeLisi, the US ambassador to the Horn of African nation said that Asmara had called on the United States Agency for International Development to wind-up its operations.
John Bolton, Washington’s new ambassador to the United Nations, has called for wholesale changes to a draft document due to go before a UN summit next month aimed at reshaping the world body. Bolton has proposed 750 amendments to the draft and called for immediate talks on them.
Josiah Tungamirai, Minister for Black Empowerment and Indigenisation in Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government, has died while receiving treatment at a clinic in South Africa, state radio announced on Friday. Family members said the retired Air Force of Zimbabwe commander had been having problems with the rejection of a kidney transplant.
Last weekend was a special one for Ras Uria, a Unisa law student and member of the Twelve Tribes (of Israel). It was the anniversary of the birth of Marcus Garvey, the African-American who advocated the return of the descendants of African slaves to Africa.
Kaizer Chiefs played to a goalless Premier Soccer League )PSL) draw against Ajax Cape Town on Thursday on the same FNB Stadium pitch that has landed them in hot water. The R145 000 fine and punitive measure by the PSL to play home games against Mamelodi Sundowns and Black Leopards without spectators seemed to weigh heavily on Chiefs.
Lance Armstrong has vehemently denied fresh doping allegations and attacked lapses in anti-doping protocol that allowed a French newspaper to gain access to his stored urine samples from the 1999 Tour de France. ”The unfortunate thing is that you’re dealing with something you could be faced with the rest of your life,” he said.
”Cricket’s sudden assertion of itself on the international sporting scene seems not only out of character, but somehow unnatural, as if a high tide had come instead of a low, or a summer had followed an autumn. Indeed, nothing has jolted and upset the natural order of things than England’s magnificent resurgence against Australia,” writes Tom Eaton.
Brett Kebble may be preoccupied with the loss of his mining empire, but his venture into fishing is looking even shakier. Allegations of broken promises, dodgy licence applications and attempts to use political influence swirl around the South Atlantic Fishing Company, an empowerment firm set up by Kebble’s JCI to hunt tuna and swordfish off the west coast.
”The transfer market exists to teach managers humility. Even Jose Mourinho should feel chastened from time to time. Despite his public pronouncements, in his private moments, he might ask himself whether it really was essential to spend £8-million on Tiago, the midfielder offloaded to Lyon on Wednesday,” writes Kevin McCarra.