Bulgaria’s last three dancing bears are being sent to a mountain sanctuary after activists bought their freedom on Friday in an effort to stamp out the centuries-old tradition that has survived in the Balkans despite being outlawed. The trio will join another 20 brown bears in their new home.
Frozen North Korean assets that have held up a nuclear disarmament deal have not yet been fully transferred, a Russian diplomatic source was quoted as saying on Friday. Japan’s Kyodo News agency earlier quoted authorities in Macau as saying the funds from the Banco Delta Asia had arrived at the New York branch of the Federal Reserve.
Public-service unions will consult with their membership before deciding to accept or reject government’s revised salary package, which includes a 7,25% wage-increase offer. The unions also said they were concerned that the salaries of some public servants had been withheld on Friday.
Hamas may now rule Gaza, but for many ordinary Palestinians the bloody conclusion of this week’s factional fighting promises only more chaos. Emergency measures imposed by President Mahmoud Abbas in an 11th-hour bid to bolster his secular Fatah against Hamas Islamists provided little consolation to Palestinians.
Malawi’s Supreme Court granted powers on Friday to the speaker of Parliament to fire defecting MPs in a move likely to lead to the collapse of President Bingu wa Mutharika’s minority government. Chief Justice Leonard Unyolo determined that the speaker could use a controversial constitutional provision to expel any lawmaker who had changed party affiliation.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) on Thursday announced that it had agreed to a deal with satellite-TV broadcaster SuperSport, which will pay a reported R300-million a year over the next five years for the rights to broadcast PSL matches. And all hell broke loose.
South African electricity tariffs are likely to keep rising steeply as the country tries to fund a massive spending programme to upgrade its power network, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Friday. Africa’s largest economy has suffered a series of power failures over the past couple of years as it struggles to keep up with faster economic growth.
A former Nigerian militia leader whose release has raised hopes of improved security in the oil-producing Niger Delta has pledged to continue his struggle for local control of oil wealth, but not in a criminal way. The situation in the region remains volatile despite the release of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari on Thursday.
Business and political leaders attending an annual conference meant to focus entrepreneurial attention on Africa hailed China’s and India’s huge appetite for raw materials as a powerful driving force to move the African economy up a gear. But the discussion at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference on Africa was tinged with anxiety.
The United Nations health agency and the international Red Cross warned on Friday that hospitals in the Gaza Strip were being drawn into the fighting there and were fast becoming overwhelmed by the number of wounded. ”Shots were fired inside or around four hospitals in Gaza,” World Health Organisation spokesperson Fadela Chaib said.