No image available
/ 3 December 2006
Zimbabwe’s embattled finance minister has set a Herculean task of slashing four-digit inflation by two-thirds and getting the ruined economy back on track, but experts say his latest Budget is not up to the job.Presenting the Budget for 2007 on Thursday, Herbert Murerwa forecast marginal growth of 0,5% to 1% and added that the country’s astronomic inflation rate would fall to 350%.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
About 150 members of the main opposition Botswana National Front held a protest march on Saturday against government moves to relocate Bushmen from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Botswana’s high court is expected to rule on December 13 on a legal challenge by the Bushmen against their eviction.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
In a move that will send shockwaves through the White House a leaked memo from former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in which he admitted American failings in Iraq and called for a major change in policy, emerged on Saturday. The classified memo revealed that the ultra-hawkish Rumsfeld believes that United States forces in Iraq are not achieving their aims.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
Corpses of people killed during heavy clashes between the Sudanese army and former southern rebels have contaminated part of the Nile river, which civilians were depending on for drinking water. The fighting in the southern town of Malakal this week was the heaviest between government forces and their former southern rebel foes since they signed a peace deal last year.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
Villagers in the central Philippines buried hundreds of relatives and friends in mass graves on Sunday as hopes faded of finding survivors from Typhoon Durian. Officials fear the death toll from Durian, which swept into the South China Sea on Friday, could reach 600 after torrential rain and winds of up to 225kph sent waves of mud crashing down an active volcano into nearby villages.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
The African Union’s elite watchdog body has urged South Africa to make the fight against violent crime its top priority, the Sunday Times reported. In a report that will go to heads of state in January, a panel of African elders warned that crime, poverty, unemployment and the political domination of the ANC threatened the stability of South Africa’s hard won democracy.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik suffered a mild stroke shortly after beginning his prison term at the Qalakabusha prison in Empangeni, the Sunday Independent reported. Shaik was initially treated for hypertension after his transfer to Qalakabusha from the Westville prison on November 9.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
Ricky Ponting passed Steve Waugh as Australia’s most prolific century maker when he chalked up his 33rd hundred in the second Ashes test against England on Sunday. Ponting survived a dropped catch on 35 and a missed run out to reach 101 not out at tea on the third day at Adelaide Oval with Australia 185 for three in reply to England’s 551 for six declared.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
An Italian contact of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko said he believed both were targeted with a radioactive substance because of secrets they shared. Mario Scaramella said on Saturday urine tests showed he had received a potentially lethal dose of polonium 210, the rare radioactive isotope that killed Litvinenko.
No image available
/ 3 December 2006
It seems like a title guaranteed to make an audience groan: Rocky VI. It’s star is old, the franchise is worn out and the idea of a 60-year-old boxer is ridiculous. But Sylvester Stallone and the creators of the final addition to the Rocky stable have gone all out to market the movie, not to sports fans, but to Christians. Rocky, it turns out, is a metaphor for Jesus.