A group of small European countries are seeking to water down key proposals agreed last week by G8 leaders in Gleneagles, leaked documents have revealed. The documents showed that Belgium was leading an initiative that would make it more difficult for 18 of the world’s poorest countries to be granted 100% debt relief.
President Robert Mugabe on Friday stressed Zimbabwe’s solidarity with South Africa, defying reports of mounting pressure on the South African government to take a hardline stance towards its crisis-ridden northern neighbour. Mugabe said his country is ”pleased to continue our solidarity and comradeship” with South Africa.
President Robert Mugabe’s former spin doctor Jonathan Moyo, sacked earlier this year for defying Zimbabwe’s ruling party, is working on a book about his time in government, a newspaper reported Friday. Once seen as Mugabe’s blue-eyed boy, the former information minister has become a fierce critic of the Zimbabwean government.
A senior Chinese general has warned that his country could destroy hundreds of American cities with nuclear weapons if the two nations clashed over Taiwan. General Zhu Chenghu said he was expressing a private opinion, but his inflammatory comments will fuel growing concerns in Washington about the rise of China.
The five-month Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire was in tatters last night after Israel responded to missile attacks from Gaza with airstrikes that killed six Hamas militants. The strikes came after dozens of missiles were fired from Gaza at Israeli targets, leaving one 22-year-old woman dead.
A depleted, derided Bafana Bafana may already have exceeded all expectations in the Concacaf Gold Cup, but how the magical carpet ride is ultimately judged could depend on the outcome of Sunday’s ”Round About Midnight” (SA time) quarter-final against Panama at Houston’s ultra-modern Reliant Stadium.
President Thabo Mbeki has promised support for church relief efforts for people displaced under Zimbabwe’s so-called urban clean-up campaign. He made the undertaking during a meeting with representatives of the South African Council of Churches in Pretoria on Friday afternoon, church leaders said.
A fact-finding mission by South African clergy on Zimbabwe’s demolitions campaign was ”sponsored by Britain and part of a plot to unseat President Robert Mugabe’s government”, The Herald said on Friday. Meanwhile, Mugabe’s former spin doctor Jonathan Moyo is working on a book about his time in the government.
Kenya has launched a massive security operation in the northern region, where a massacre and reprisal attacks have left at least 77 people dead this week, officials said on Friday, as the Red Cross appealed for humanitarian aid for displaced people.
Senegal’s former prime minister was on Friday being questioned by police over claims he overspent hundreds of millions of rands on a road project in his stronghold of Thies. Idrissa Seck’s supporters clashed with police in the streets around his home and police headquarters in the capital, Dakar.