Prime Minister Tony Blair’s likely successor will not reverse a decision to replace Britain’s nuclear deterrent, despite dissent in the governing Labour Party, a senior party official said on Thursday. A parliamentary vote on the issue on Wednesday saw 87 Labour lawmakers vote against government plans to renew the submarine-based Trident missile system.
The international community should take a "far tougher line" against Sudan over atrocities in Darfur to prevent extremism spreading across Africa, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday. In an interview on Sky News television, Blair offered a robust defence of his views on combating radicalism and said countries need to act to prevent future security threats.
Relieved by an overnight recovery on Wall Street, Asian markets bounced back on Thursday from their previous day’s plunge amid easing concerns about a slowdown in the United States economy. Investors who had dumped stocks a day earlier in the wake of sharp decline in the US market snapped up shares in a broad rally.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he was ”sorry” for his country’s role in the slave trade. Blair has previously expressed ”deep sorrow” for slavery, abolished within the British empire 200 years ago, but has been criticised by black rights organisations for not going further.
The United States said on Wednesday it is looking at what additional sanctions it might impose on Zimbabwe after a government crackdown that led to the detention and beating of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Rights groups say 50 opposition figures, including Tsvangirai, were tortured after their arrest during a prayer meeting on Sunday.
Maoist rebels in central India have killed 50 police officers in one of their worst-ever attacks in decades of insurgency, officials said on Thursday. A large group of rebels hurled grenades, petrol bombs and fired indiscriminately at a jungle security post in Rani Bodli village in Chhattisgarh state, one of several parts of the country in the grip of a left-wing rebellion.
Mamelodi Sundowns went through to the quarterfinals of the Absa Cup when they beat Maritzburg United 1-0 at the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday. The half-time score was 0-0. The only goal of the match came from substitute Patrick Apataki. The striker came on for Lerato Chabangu in the 88th minute and scored almost immediately.
South African health and life insurer Discovery and its existing United Kingdom joint venture partner Prudential have announced plans to enhance their relationship through the roll-out of life-assurance products into the British market, it was announced on Thursday.
Impala Platinum (Implats), the world’s second-largest platinum producer, says it has won the Business Map Foundation’s award for black economic empowerment (BEE) deal of the year for its transaction with the Royal Bafokeng nation. The deal saw Implats swap a royalty agreement with the country’s richest tribe for an equity stake in the company.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was doing well after she underwent a successful five-hour liver transplant due to long-term liver disease, said Professor Jeff Wing on Thursday morning. ”The were no complications during the operation, none whatsoever,” said Wing, head of the department of medicine at the Johannesburg hospital and the University of the Witwatersrand.