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.
Russia’s secret services are shielding Bosnian Serbs wanted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities committed during the Bosnian war, including the massacre at Srebrenica, where more than 8 000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered.
The United Nations believes that more than 180 000 people may have died in the troubled Darfur region in western Sudan. According to the UN’s top emergency coordination official, Jan Egeland, the number refers to people who have died of malnutrition and disease, and does not cover those who have been killed in the conflict.
South African banking group Absa, which is the target for a takeover by the United Kingdom’s Barclays group, confirmed on Tuesday that it has pulled out of talks to acquire a 49% stake in the state-owned Zambia National Commercial Bank. Analysts believe that the scuppering of the deal has put the Zambian government in a bit of quandary.
A man died in an accident in an operation run by a contractor at Sasol’s Secunda plant in Mpumalanga on Tuesday morning. The employee of a company called Fluor was working in the pipe-fabrication shop, said Mark Flower, Fluor’s marketing director. The fabrication facility is operated by Fluor within the boundaries of Sasol’s Secunda plant.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu reacted wearily on Tuesday to the latest claims of a right-wing agenda levelled against him by the African National Congress. ”I am old now,” he sighed, asked for comment on the matter after delivering an address at the University of Pretoria. ”I let some of these things go off my back like water.”
A crisis is looming in the country regarding the preservation, maintenance and identity of South Africa’s indigenous African tongues. This is according to a framework report on the development of these languages in higher education, presented to Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Tuesday.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) rallied to a new high on Tuesday morning, fuelled by the rand, which broke above the psychological R6 per dollar level. There was no other news to give the bourse direction, dealers said. By 12.06pm, the all-share index added 0,3% to 13 685,84. It touched a record high of 13 674,360 earlier in the session.
Clyde Rathbone has questioned the viability of a fifth South African franchise in the expanded Super 14 competition, saying there are not enough quality players in the country to support it. A South African franchise will be selected in the coming months to join Perth as the two new teams in the 2006 Super 14 competition.