With less than 21 months to go before the expiry of his disputed presidential tenure, President Robert Mugabe last month got his beleaguered Zanu-PF government to launch yet another economic recovery plan called ”National Economic Development Priority Programme” in a bid to revive Zimbabwe’s collapsed economy.
Evo Morales went for a characteristically theatrical gesture on May Day when he sent in troops to seize Bolivia’s natural gas fields, pipelines and refineries. As global energy companies struggle to digest the consequences, it is clear that the president of Latin America’s highest, poorest and most isolated country intends to keep on trying to redistribute the region’s wealth.
Spillover from the Darfur conflict is in danger of destabilising the entire Central African region, say observers. Since the war in Sudan erupted, rebel groups have formed in neighbouring Chad and are beginning to emerge in the Central African Republic, which shares a border with both states.
Small-scale black farmers in the southern Cape are locked in battles over access to municipal commonage as councils fetch top prices for land amid the local golf and luxury-estate development boom. ”The municipality has no land for us, the poor of the poorest, but the municipality has land for the rich,” says Lucas Lebenya, secretary of the Siyazama Emergent Farmers.
The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors this week to discuss a draft resolution on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme as Tehran announced it had successfully enriched uranium to a new level.
On 25 occasions over the past 18 months, Kennedy George has packed his suitcase and headed to Dublin’s Burgh Quay to be deported from Ireland. Each time, the 21-year-old Sierra Leone soccer player has had his deportation cancelled at the last minute.
It took South Africa an hour and 35 minutes to get rid of the last four New Zealand batsmen for 283 on the third morning of the third Castle Lager Test at the Wanderers on Sunday. Oram and Daniel Vettori had put on 49 runs for the seventh wicket.
United States veteran Jim Furyk fired a four-under par 68 on Saturday to grab a one-stroke lead over South Africans Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman after three rounds of the United States PGA Wachovia Championship. Furyk, seeking his 12th career triumph and first since last year’s Western Open, stood on 11-under par 205 after 54 holes at the -million event.
Undefeated Barbaro stormed into the lead at the top of the stretch on Saturday and won the Kentucky Derby convincingly after a five-week layoff. It also was a victory in the Derby debut for trainer Michael Matz, who 17 years ago led three children to safety after their plane crashed into an cornfield.
Of all of Africa’s four debutants at the World Cup, Côte d’Ivoire could be the side best placed to spring a shock. The Ivorians pulled off a dramatic upset in qualifying by eliminating four-time finalists Cameroon and as a result will arrive in Germany knowing that sometimes miracles do happen.