A meeting of more than 187 church leaders from across Africa has highlighted the role of female clergy in fighting the Aids pandemic that has swept the continent. The four-day gathering, which ended on Friday, was organised by the All Africa Conference of Churches to explore ways of stepping up efforts to curb the spread of HIV.
The Cabinet is to be asked to approve an African Union request to South Africa to send military observers to monitor a ceasefire in Sudan. A defence spokesperson said the AU requested 10 observers from South Africa earlier this month and Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota will soon be taking the request to the Cabinet.
Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has defended his gift of timber to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe several years ago, and said he is prepared to be prosecuted if the act is deemed an abuse of his power while in office, reports said on Saturday.
Assailants killed an Iraqi deputy foreign minister on Saturday in an ambush that occurred as he was travelling to his Baghdad office, the Foreign Ministry said. Gunmen shot Bassam Salih Kubba in Baghdad’s Azimiyah district, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein’s regime had been strong.
The elections in Afghanistan seem certain to be delayed for a second time, dealing a damaging blow to United States President George Bush’s own election campaign. The delay comes amid growing concern about the security of the election process after the killing on Thursday of 11 Chinese construction workers.
A visit from township men with knives and bloodied hands would usually have white suburbia reaching for its revolver, or at least its panic button, but not this time. These visitors were invited guests. ”It’s for the ancestors,” said Sphiwe, sharpening a blade on a stone beside the swimming pool.
European Union leaders are to give the green light to the creation of a European diplomatic service to increase the union’s voice on the world stage. Under proposals finalised by Ireland, the service will be written into the text of the Constitution that is expected to be agreed at the Brussels summit next Friday.
From the hush of the National Cathedral, there rose the regular tapping of the bishop’s staff on the marble floor as Ronald Reagan’s casket was borne in to receive the tributes of the most powerful people in the world. Friday’s state funeral brought a stellar cast of world leaders, past and present, enemies and friends.
Official opposition communications spokesperson Dene Smuts says Telkom is disingenuous when it argues that its profits were not only derived from revenues but also cost savings. Telkom, which appeared before the parliamentary communications committee on Friday, argued that fixed line profits were the product of cost cuts.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the steel producer Iscor are expected to resume crucial wage talks on Monday. The wage negotiations between the two parties will determine the wage increases for all production workers this year.