A top United Nations anti-drug official has predicted cocaine prices in the United States and Europe will rise next year, reflecting the fruits of a six-year, US-funded effort to eradicate drug production in Colombia. ”Considering Colombia supplies 80% of the world cocaine market, we think prices are going to rise starting in 2006,” the official said.
Twenty-three people, including three top leaders of Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-linked Islamic group, were killed on Tuesday when Philippine police stormed a maximum-security prison to end a day-old revolt, officials said. The Philippine military has said it is preparing for possible retaliatory attacks by Abu Sayyaf.
African Union officials discussed sending troops to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to forcibly disarm thousands of Rwandans linked to their country’s 1994 genocide. At a meeting, officials said they were considering three options for disarming an estimated 10 000 to 14 000 Rwandan rebels in the DRC.
Hong Kong’s acting Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, said on Tuesday he is prepared to face a legal challenge over the decision to let the territory’s new leader serve only a two-year term. Tsang said the government is determined to see a new leader installed on July 10 following chief executive Tung Chee-hwa’s early resignation last week.
One of four Waterkloof youths accused of killing a man in a park in 2001 has denied stabbing the man. Christoff Becker (19) also denied in his Pretoria Regional Court trial on Tuesday that he or co-accused Gert van Schalkwyk was involved in an assault on another man the same day.
Black economic empowerment in agriculture (AgriBEE) will also benefit white farmers and companies who become involved with it, the National African Farmers’ Union (Nafu) said on Tuesday. ”AgriBEE is voluntary and incentive-driven. This will benefit farmers and companies which choose to get involved by helping black farmers,” said Nafu’s BigMan Maloa.
Bullets have been found in each of the remains of the two Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres exhumed in Piet Retief on Monday. National Prosecution Authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Tuesday that the findings brought them closer to the conclusion of the case.
Scratching her swollen and shoeless feet after digging up her potato field, Roberta Centeño looks exhausted but says she has plenty of energy for the struggle ahead. ”We blocked roads before and we will do it again,” says the Aymara Indian mother of 12. ”It is the only way the government ever listens, they want to just think about the rich.”
The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Monday that he expected Hamas and other armed factions to announce a full ceasefire in the conflict with Israel at a meeting beginning in Cairo on Tuesday. Abbas said that if the ceasefire is agreed, he wants Israel to begin full negotiations over the creation of a Palestinian state.
The battle for the streets of Lebanon reached new heights on Monday when hundreds of thousands of anti-Syria protesters, some with Lebanese flags painted on their faces, swamped the centre of Beirut. Few had any doubt that it was the biggest demonstration the city had ever seen, or was likely ever to see.