Tribal elders in southeastern Afghanistan have threatened to torch the houses of people found growing opium and make them pay a hefty fine in a bid to stamp out the burgeoning poppy cultivation. By far the most drastic suggestion yet offered for tackling the country’s rampant drug trade, the punishment has failed to win the approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai despite his anti-narcotics stance.
The gold standard of sterling is long forgotten and now the supremacy of the greenback has been surpassed. The world has a new global currency — airline frequent flyer miles, which have a greater total value than dollars, euros, pounds or yen. By the end of 2004, almost 14-trillion frequent flyer miles had been accumulated worldwide.
The United Nations said on Friday the Sudan government and Darfur rebels have responded positively to a temporary ceasefire plea to allow a planned polio vaccination campaign to go ahead next week. But Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, raised fears that rebel groups fighting government forces in Sudan’s western Darfur region are planning to launch attacks ahead of Sunday’s peace deal signing ceremony to end the country’s 21 year southern civil war.
Forty years after three civil rights workers were killed on a dirt road in Mississippi on a night that came to symbolise the racial hate of the American South, an elderly leader of the Ku Klux Klan appeared in court on Friday to be formally charged with their murder. Edgar Ray Killen appeared handcuffed and in an orange prison jump suit to plead not guilty to three counts of murder.
The Pentagon has ordered a comprehensive review of its Iraq strategy in the face of mounting casualties and an increasing strain on the United States army and its reserve ranks, it was reported on Friday. A retired four-star general, Gary Luck, is due to arrive in Iraq next week to conduct an ”open-ended” rethink of tactics, troop levels and the training of Iraqi forces.
Allawi to lock down Iraq on election day
The favourite to win the Palestinian presidential election, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday night called for an end to ”the chaos of guns” in Palestinian society and expressed optimism that a ceasefire in the four-year uprising would be agreed by all factions. An Israeli was killed on Friday near Nablus by the al-Aqsa Brigades, suggesting Abbas will have trouble reining in even his own faction.
Abbas views Sharon as partner
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has called for a judicial commission headed by a respected judge to probe "the serious questions" that continue to hang over Auditor General Shauket Fakie and President Thabo Mbeki involving South Africa’s arms deal, following press reports of a "cover-up" and alteration of an official arms deal report.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Insight-National&ao=177542">Arms report sanitised</a>
The world’s leading industrial nations on Friday night agreed to suspend debt payments from countries in south-east Asia affected by the tsunami disaster. Responding to the damage caused by the wave, the G7 nations announced an immediate debt moratorium and promised further assistance when they meet in London next month.
There exists, as all residents of France know, a gnomic Gallic god who occasionally decides, for reasons unclear to mere mortals, that the time has come for you to be re-acquainted with the very singular charms of French bureaucracy. This painful but doubtless improving experience can take many forms.
A new book by Gwen Ansell explores the history and politics of local jazz. It takes us back in time to when the circumstances of struggle politics influenced the composition of music, writes Sabata-Mpho Mokae.