As Britain reeled with shock following Thursday’s bomb attacks in London, campaigners feared that the Group of Eight’s (G8) lofty ambitions on Africa and Earth’s climate would be pushed aside amid the outpouring of grief. Campaigners fear that their causes now face being dispatched back to the wilderness.
Hurricane Dennis strengthened with winds of 168kph on Thursday and threatened to become a major storm as it uprooted trees and flooded homes in southern Haiti and swept away a car in Jamaica, readying for a direct strike. Forecasters said the storm could strike the United States anywhere from Florida to Louisiana on Sunday or Monday.
At least 37 people were killed and about 700 injured after four bombs ripped through London’s underground network and tore the roof off a bus during Thursday-morning rush hour. Leaders from around the world have expressed shock and anger.
The Zimbabwean government put the extent of displacement under its urban slum-clearance campaign at 130 000 families on Wednesday, saying it will not re-accommodate them all. Minister counsellor in the Zimbabwean embassy Pritchard Zhou told a seminar in Pretoria the operation has ”won praise countrywide”.
The Ugandan Parliament has overwhelmingly voted to amend the country’s Constitution to outlaw gay marriage and impose criminal penalties on same-sex couples who wed, a spokesperson for the legislature said on Thursday. The amendment says that ”marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman”.
Former president Nelson Mandela will not have a high-profile birthday — on July 18 — this year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Thursday.
Soccer player Benedict Vilakazi, who is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl, was granted bail of R1 000 in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Thursday afternoon. This follows an application by his legal team to have his bail reinstated after magistrate Naomi Manaka earlier revoked it when he failed to appear before her at 8.30am.
The stock market in London tumbled on Thursday after deadly blasts on London’s transport network which British Prime Minister Tony Blair said were the work of terrorists. London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down 1,38% to 5Â 158,30 points after falling more than 3% in the immediate aftermath of the explosions.
More than 10-million people in Southern Africa will need humanitarian assistance in the coming year because of poor agricultural production, food agencies said on Thursday. Following a recent crop assessment it was found that Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Swaziland are not able to grow enough food to meet domestic needs.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, facing a political crisis over allegations of vote fraud, said on Thursday she has asked her Cabinet members to step down but will not herself resign. ”I will not resign,” Arroyo said in a nationwide address, 10 days after she apologised to the nation for improperly calling an election official during the May 2004 presidential vote.