European Union leaders seemed ready to postpone lifting the arms embargo on China on Tuesday night, responding to Beijing’s adoption of a secession law designed to prevent Taiwan’s moving to independence. The 25 heads of state and government gathered in Brussels for the EU spring summit were under competing pressure from Washington and Beijing.
Leading Shia politicians said on Tuesday that they had finally brokered a deal with Kurdish parties to end a debilitating impasse over the formation of Iraq’s first freely elected government in decades. They said Iraq’s new Parliament, which held its largely ceremonial inaugural session last week, would reconvene on Saturday to try to form a coalition administration.
Education is one of the most important ”deposits” the government could make in building human capital and ensuring a better life for all, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Wednesday, ”because it is through education that we give people the resources and the skills to make something of their lives and, in doing so, to contribute to the lives of those around them”.
The Stormers have made four changes to their Super 12 rugby team to play the Hurricanes at Palmerston North on Friday. Coach Gert Smal on Wednesday announced two changes in the outside backs and two in the forwards as his team chase their first win in the final match of a four-game overseas tour.
They may be odds-on favourites with the bookies, but history is against the ACT Brumbies overcoming the Sharks in Saturday’s Super 12 match in South Africa. The Brumbies named a strengthened line-up, including gifted fullback Mark Gerard and Wallaby forwards Owen Finegan, Radike Samo and Jeremy Paul, to start against the Sharks at Durban’s Absa Stadium.
The crisis over the relocation from exile of Somalia’s transitional government deepened on Wednesday as powerful warlords said they will move to impeach President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed. Warlords controlling the capital of Mogadishu said they will introduce a no-confidence motion against Yusuf in Parliament and seek his removal.
It was supposed to be all the fun of the fair, but the match between Western Province-Boland and the Lashings World XI fizzled out as a contest long before the visitors were eventually dismissed in Cape Town on Tuesday. After a solid total had been posted, the home team’s seamers exploited the conditions beautifully and a well-controlled spell from Paul Adams mopped up the tail.
In a case that could set limits on internet search engines, the French news agency AFP is suing Google for pulling together photos and story excerpts from thousands of news websites. Agence France-Presse said the Google News service infringes on AFP’s copyrights by reproducing information from the websites of subscribers of the Paris-based news wholesaler.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup got off to a soggy start on Tuesday when heavy rain descended over Pretoria, causing all four opening matches to be abandoned. At Supersport Park, a partnership of 90 between Shandre Fritz and Claire Terblanche restored South Africa’s fortunes, after Ireland appeared to have got the better of the home side.
![]()
Supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s 25-year rule locked horns on Tuesday with opposition members in the only public campaign debate before the parliamentary elections on March 31. The stormy session, marked by catcalls and slow hand claps, ended with a walkout by members of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.