Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said on Monday that he is willing to hold talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, but only if such a summit ”would lead to results”. Sharon and Qorei have still not met since the Palestinian premier came to power last October.
Sharon puts his job on the line
Ten African countries sharing the River Nile met on Monday in Uganda to discuss a legal framework that will replace colonial laws which give Egypt a preferential use of the river’s resources, officials said. The current meeting takes place under the auspices of the 10-nation Nile Basin Initiative that handles the management of the river.
Fire ripped through the Wadata marketplace on the outskirts of the Niger capital, Niamey, early on Monday, firefighters and local officials said. More than 90% of the market was destroyed by the fire, which broke out before dawn, according to city officials and a grouping of shopowners.
Port Elizabeth-based General Motors on Monday conceded defeat in a long-running defamation case against Jaco van der Merwe regarding his labelling his Isuzu KB280 bakkie the ”worst 4x4xfar”. The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein ruled on Monday that the slogan was not defamatory.
At least four people, including a woman, were killed and more than 20 wounded on Monday when at least one car bomb exploded in a western Baghdad neighbourhood, witnesses and hospital sources said. The blast happened in front of a house belonging to a former senior Ba’ath official from Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Africa’s leading mobile phone operator Vodacom said on Monday it was terminating a management pact with its Nigerian partner barely two months into a five-year agreement, and dropping plans to invest -million (R1,3-billion) in it. On April 1, Vodacom signed a five-year pact to manage Econet Wireless Nigeria Limited.
The fine for the sale of tobacco products to minors has increased from R10 000 to R50 000 for a first offence, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday. Other smoking fines have also increased steeply — the first-offence fine for advertising tobacco products has increased to R500 000.
South African President Thabo Mbeki pressed Burundian political leaders on Monday to agree on elections, seen as crucial for advancing peace in the Central African country, wracked by civil war since 1993. Talks between Burundi’s president and leaders of former rebel groups and political parties opened in acrimony in Pretoria on Saturday.
Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is studying media reports and footage from the South African Broadcasting Corporation in which comments about his office were allegedly made by National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and former justice minister Penuell Maduna.
‘Internecine warfare’
Public protector a ‘liar’ and ‘sad case’
The United States was on Sunday night locked in a dispute with Iraqi leaders over who should be the country’s president when power is handed over on June 30. The US governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and the UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, insisted the job should go to Adnan Pachachi, an 81-year-old former foreign minister.