British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s commission on Africa has come up with a road map to recovery for the continent, but countries must now cooperate and focus on priorities if the project is to succeed, the only American member of the task force said.
After eight months detained in Japan awaiting deportation to the United States, the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer may soon be free, his supporters claimed on Tuesday. Fischer (62) on Tuesday, was held last July when trying to leave Japan for the Philippines on an invalid passport which had been revoked by the US.
Sudan needs almost -billion for reconstruction and development over the next two years to recover from two decades of north-south civil war, an assessment team said on Wednesday. The team, made up of representatives from the Khartoum government and the ex-rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said ,8-billion, would be required until 2007.
Iran’s love of goldfish as a table-top symbol of good luck costs the lives of five million of the creatures every year, a press report said on Wednesday. From March to early April, when Iranians celebrate Norooz — New Year in the Persian calendar — millions of the small fish are bred in unsanitary pools and transferred in buckets and tanks to the big cities.
Japanese police have found the mummified body of a 107-year-old man, who died up to a decade ago, wearing a clean kimono at his house near Osaka, an official said on Wednesday. An official with the Itami city hall said the city is considering asking the man’s family to return gifts it has received since 1999 as a token of the man’s longevity.
Somalia’s new environment minister asked the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate possible hazardous waste that was washed ashore by last year’s tsunami. The waste may be causing illnesses among local people. The minister said strange objects washed ashore all along his country’s coastline when the tsunami struck on December 26 last year.
Two people were killed and nine were reported missing in Algerian floods this week following heavy rain in the Sahara, according to reports on Wednesday. About 70 travellers were trapped when wadis (valleys) suddenly flooded in the downpours on Sunday and Monday and had to be rescued by army helicoters, newspapers reported.
Nigeria’s House of Representatives has called on the government to halt further repayments on the country’s staggering -billion in external debts. The motion, approved by the Lower House, said the debt burden is a brake on social and economic development, and the amount owed continues to increase because of accrued interest.
Pope John Paul II made a surprise appearance at a hospital window on Wednesday, giving the Roman Catholic faithful their third glimpse of him since he was rushed back to the clinic for throat surgery nearly two weeks ago. The 84-year-old pontiff’s brief appearance came on a day when he traditionally holds his weekly public audience at the Vatican.
Twenty-five primary-school children died on Wednesday from apparent food poisoning in the central Philippine province of Bohol, officials said. The students from the San Jose Elementary School in the town of Mabini had eaten snacks made from cassava roots in their mid-morning break before falling ill, officials said.