Sol Campbell could miss out on the FA Cup final for the second time in three years as Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger weighs up leaving the England defender out of his starting line-up against Manchester United. Campbell, who missed the 2003 final due to suspension, has just returned to the side after a three-month injury absence.
The United States, Nato and the European Union have joined the United Nations in pressing for an international probe into the alleged killing of hundreds during an authoritarian crackdown in Uzbekistan. The Uzbek leader has staunchly resisted calls to end the crackdown on the opposition in the city of Andijan.
A London public-relations (PR) firm has been hired to polish the image of the Ugandan government, which is wrestling with a civil war, a tarnished human rights record and a wave of criticism from Western media and human rights groups. Uganda is due to hold multiparty elections next year.
White farmers may be allowed back on their land in Zimbabwe as part of a plan by the government of Robert Mugabe to solve the country’s deepening economic crisis. Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank and Mugabe’s main policy-maker, made the proposal as he announced a 31% devaluation of the Zimbabwe currency.
Allan Heyl, the last surviving member of the Stander gang of bank robbers who was released from Krugersdorp prison on Wednesday, is free to speak to journalists, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday. Departmental spokesperson Graham Abrahams said Heyl is now free to deal with the public.
Equatorial Guinea on Friday welcomed news that South Africa will try suspects who allegedly organised a coup plot in this oil-rich Central African nation. South African prosecutors said on Monday they will try 61 suspected mercenaries who were deported to South Africa from Zimbabwe a day earlier.
A code of good practice in black economic empowerment (BEE) is meant to guide stakeholders and not punish anyone, Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa said in Pretoria on Friday. He was speaking to journalists after a meeting of the Black Business Working Group with President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings.
A beast of burden turned the tables on a United States woman, giving her a load to bear when the camel sat on her and pinned her to the ground. On the bright side — if there is one to such a situation — the woman in Bethlehem, West Virginia, had her cellphone in her hand at the time.
Former state president FW de Klerk has come out against the renaming of Pretoria, saying such a move would be contrary to the notion of reconciliation. ”There appears to be an increasing tendency to excise the history and traditions of minorities from our emerging national identity,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Lawyers representing Saddam Hussein plan to sue the British tabloid that published intimate photos of the deposed Iraqi dictator, Al-Jazeera television reported on Friday, quoting the head of the defence team. The photos appeared in The Sun, one showing Saddam wearing only his underpants.