Iraqi officials on Wednesday multiplied their calls for calm fearing the attacks on Shiite Muslims that killed scores in two cities could radicalise the community. Angry Shiites in Baghdad accused radical Sunnis of being responsible. In Karbala, Shiites blamed Wahhabis, believers in a radical form of Sunni Islam from Saudi Arabia.
170 dead in Iraq on festival day
Member states of the East African Community have signed a protocol for establishing a customs union that is expected to boost growth in the region. The agreement was initialled on Tuesday in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha by the presidents of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It will take effect in July this year.
The Angolan Red Cross and the national delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross have spent almost two years helping reunite families separated by 27 years of civil conflict, bringing 836 children back together with parents, aunts, uncles and siblings.
The first hard evidence that water once flowed on Mars has been found. The Nasa rover Opportunity landed on a plane next to a stony outcrop that had been altered by liquid water, scientists announced on Tuesday night. The discovery confirms years of indirect, tantalising and sometimes furiously disputed evidence gleaned from satellite sensors.
No matter how much the Israelis threw at Khalil Bashir, he stuck with the message that has drawn admiration and scorn in Gaza: there is no time for anger, no time for revenge, there should only be tolerance for the Jews.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Democratic Alliance on Wednesday questioned the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s motives in declining to "take the lead" in organising the series of election debates between President Thabo Mbeki and DA leader Tony Leon as requested.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
In January, South African media estimated 1Â 500 former soldiers and police officers were operating in Iraq, in defiance of legislation forbidding the practice. Most are said to be members of former elite units, disbanded following the end of apartheid, their skills no longer required in the new South Africa.
Former security policeman Johannes ”Slang” van Zyl arrived at the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for an appearance in connection with the murder of three anti-apartheid activists known as the Pebco Three in 1985, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
In the fall of 2002, Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates stood on stage at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards, and pronounced this ”the digital decade”. Eighteen months later, Gates’s endeavour could be facing a big roadblock.
King Mswati III on Tuesday postponed the opening of Parliament in this tiny Southern African nation without explanation. No new date was announced. Mswati, Africa’s last absolute monarch, had been expected to preside over the opening session on Friday and address the nation on government plans for the year ahead.