The United States government has warned local law enforcement authorities that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups could soon launch a series of attacks on US passenger trains and buses. The US action follows the discovery in Spain of a new bomb planted on a high-speed railway line linking Madrid and Seville.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has renewed his appeal to the West to open up its markets to enable Africa to achieve food security. He was speaking to delegates attending an international meeting on food security, organised by the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute.
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged on Friday that pre-war information he gave the United Nations on Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons laboratories to justify the US-led war on Iraq was not ”solid”. The administration of US President George Bush has also been accused of blocking the commission of enquiry into the September 11 attacks.
Along a dusty track in Sri Lanka’s war-torn Jaffna peninsula thousands of people are shuffling to polling booths for the first time in 20 years. Crossing 400m of no-man’s-land, a makeshift road flanked by minefields and coconut palms, are the world’s newest electorate: Tamils from Sri Lanka’s north and east.
Oil is the undisputed kingpin of Nigeria’s economy, contributing more than 90% of its export earnings. But more than four decades after the start of oil extraction in Nigeria, the industry remains in foreign hands — much to the frustration of local entrepreneurs.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>When President Thabo Mbeki entered the crowded lounge of the Xhola home in Despatch’s Khayamandi on Friday, an elderly man rose to offer his chair. But the president didn’t take it. "[Mbeki] said he is younger than that old man and he said he would go sit there on the floor," said the household matriarch afterwards.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Former world number-one Martina Navratilova will make a WTA singles comeback at the age of 47, accepting an invitation to the 000-dollar Amelia Island clay-court event that opens on Monday. Navratilova said on Friday that she also plans to play the following week at Charleston, South Carolina.
Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak lost a battle of power with his national cricket body on Friday and resigned from all forms of the game. Streak was immediately replaced as skipper by wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu, who will become the first black to lead Zimbabwe, and at 20, the youngest in Test history.
Microsoft and Sun Microsystems reached a ,6-billion antitrust and patent settlement on Friday, resolving longstanding legal issues between the two bitter tech rivals. Under the settlement, Microsoft will pay -million to resolve pending antitrust issues and -million to resolve patent issues.
Nigeria has launched an investigation into claims that a large number of military officers have been canvassing support for a coup d’état in the oil-exporting West African giant, officials said on Friday. They played down fears that Africa’s most populous country was at risk of its sixth military takeover since 1966.