”Very good discussions — constructive discussions.” Anna Tibaijuka’s comments to journalists following her meeting with President Robert Mugabe sounded like the standard diplomatic brush-off. But anyone who had hoped the UN secretary general’s special envoy to Zimbabwe was about to tiptoe over the matter of housing demolitions would have been disappointed when her report on the visit was published a few weeks later.
Drowned out by admirable but deafening calls for debt relief and an end to poverty, masked by the critical debate on climate change, and buried beneath news of the London bombs, the G8 leaders recently took the first steps towards establishing a global threat identification and warning system designed to ensure that we are never again caught napping by extreme geophysical hazards.
German sports good group Adidas-Salomon laid down a challenge to United States giant Nike by announcing on Wednesday that it is to pay €3,1-billion (,8-billion) to buy American rival Reebok. The company hopes to complete the Reebok deal in the first half of next year.
An Air France passenger jet skidded off the end of the runway and burst into flames after landing in a thunderstorm at Toronto’s Pearson International airport on Tuesday, media reports said. There were up to 200 passengers on the jet on the Paris-Toronto flight, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and other media.
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Police briefly sealed off part of central London on Tuesday after smoke was seen billowing from a double-decker bus, but lifted the alert after nothing alarming was found, a spokesperson said. The incident reflected jitters in the British capital since July 7 bombings that left 56 dead, followed by failed copycat attacks two weeks later.
Valuable South African cultural treasures, including art works, firearms, furniture and archaeological artefacts, are being smuggled out of the country for foreign collectors. According to South African Heritage Resources CEO Phakamani Buthelezi, the value of objects taken ”ranges between R500 to R50 000, even to R100 000”.
Violence broke out for a second day in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday after a morning of tense calm, a day after 36 people were killed in furious riots sparked by the death of Sudanese vice-president and former southern rebel leader John Garang. ”Where is the government? Where are the police?” asked a newspaper editor.
A Durban North couple alleged to have conned investors out of R20-million to R25-million were arrested by the commercial crime unit on Tuesday afternoon. The unit’s Captain Dean Misra said the investigation began a year-and-a-half ago when the Financial Services Board lodged a complaint against the couple.