The International Monetary Fund on Monday urged Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian government to change policy tack and come in from the international cold to avert economic disaster. The IMF stressed that Zimbabwe needs ”decisive action” to lower its fiscal deficit, tighten monetary policy and set up a market-based currency system.
Thousands of workers protested against unemployment and poverty around South Africa on Monday in a nationwide strike that business says was poorly attended and unnecessary. The SA Chamber of Business said that only 10% of workers took part in the strike, which cost the economy an estimated R500-million.
After what was described as ”a cordial and constructive meeting” with the South African Rugby Union CEO, Springbok coach Jake White seemed set on Monday to stay on as coach for the foreseeable future. White had threatened to quit on the eve of the second French Test, protesting interference with his team selections.
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Former head of the Special Investigation Unit, Judge Willem Heath announced that he will act as a legal advisor to former deputy president Jacob Zuma in his corruption trial. The former judge was previously tasked with investigating corruption into the government’s controversial R43-billion arms deal.
Critics judge it boring, but some in the Middle East consider Get Out of Here, Curse You!, the latest novel by Saddam Hussein, dangerous. The former Iraqi dictator is behind bars and stripped of power but Jordan was anxious enough to ban his tale on Sunday, claiming it could damage regional relations.
Israel has cancelled a major arms deal with China after United States allegations that it misled Washington on the export of shared technology, it was reported on Sunday. The US imposed a series of tough trade sanctions on Israel in protest at its deal to upgrade Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
Pakistan’s supreme court will today begin to consider whether to reimpose the death sentence on six men accused of gang raping a woman whose battle for justice has become an embarrassment to President Pervez Musharraf. If Mukhtaran Bibi wins, the men she accuses of gang raping her three years ago will die by hanging. If she loses, they go free.
The rand must be devalued, Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha said in Johannesburg on Monday. ”The rand is too strong and because of its strength we have a problem,” Madisha told workers participating in a one-day strike to protest ”catastrophic” unemployment level of 40%.
Iran’s new hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Sunday threw down a challenge to Western leaders by vowing to resist international pressure to abandon the country’s nuclear programme and branding Israel the source of instability in the Middle East.
British and Irish Lions rugby coach Clive Woodward has lost faith in his first XV, that was trounced 21-3 by the All Blacks, and said on Monday there will be changes for the second Test. Two whose positions appear in jeopardy are Jason Robinson and Neil Back, both of whom played in Saturday’s first Test and have been selected to play again against Manawatu on Tuesday.