The African Union on Wednesday lauded the conduct of Ethiopia’s disputed May polls and urged calm in the aftermath of the long-delayed release of results showing a ruling-party victory after deadly violence in June. The opposition, which claims the election was stolen through massive fraud, immediately rejected the returns.
George Bush’s personal interest in Mongolia might be thought limited. Yet, when the country’s then leader visited Washington last year, the US president enthusiastically declared ”a new era of comprehensive partnership”. While Mongolia has oil, its main resource is 20-million sheep and goats. But ruminants were not the reason Bush was all riled up.
The United Nations Security Council has established a monitoring and reporting mechanism that will ensure the protection of children exposed to armed conflict, a UN statement said on Wednesday. In the past decade, two million children have been killed in situations of armed conflict, while six million children have been disabled or injured.
Niger’s president played down the food crisis ravaging his desert nation, saying that people in the impoverished West African country ”look well-fed”. TV networks have for weeks broadcast images of severely malnourished, skeletal children in Niger, many too weak to brush flies from their faces. Scores have died.
The National Union of Mineworkers on Wednesday confirmed that both gold producers Harmony Gold and Gold Fields have made individual offers to the unions. Meanwhile, a Solidarity spokesperson said the Chamber of Mines ”has disintegrated with the strike. Every individual company is making its own informal offer.”
Momentum plans to entrench its position as a significant player in the health industry with the proposed acquisition of African Life Health, the group said on Wednesday. Momentum announced earlier on Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its 34% shareholding in African Life to Sanlam at a price of R882-million.
Kenya’s justice minister has admitted his government is losing the fight against corruption and vowed a ”ruthless” anti-graft war in a stark admission of long-standing donor complaints, in remarks published on Wednesday that were a rare acknowledgement of rampant official malfeasance and failing efforts to curb such abuses.
Milan Lukic, one of the most wanted war criminals from the carnage in Bosnia, was due to appear before a judge in Buenos Aires on Tuesday after being captured on Monday. After seven years on the run from war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Lukic was seized outside his apartment in Argentina.
A hacker has broken into computers at Sonoma State University in California and stolen personal information on about 61Â 000 students, according to the college. The unidentified hacker invaded seven staff computers at the college in July by exploiting ”a previously unknown weakness” in an operating system.
The rain was everybody’s enemy but Justin Gatlin’s. A torrential storm delayed the 200m quarterfinals until Wednesday and gave the 100m champion some much-needed extra rest for his pursuit of three gold medals at the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki. For the Finns, however, the javelin is the main attraction.