A bid by India’s United Breweries to take over the French champagne group Taittinger has sparked concern among wine professionals in the company’s home region in Northern France. Welcomed by some as a chance to get a foothold in the Indian market, the -million bid is seen by others as a threat to the French system of locality-based appellations for wine.
The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa opening in Cape Town on Wednesday will take stock of Africa’s strongest growth in three decades and the impact of China and India on the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa is poised to post growth of 5,8%, its best performance in more than 30 years, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Brothels should be exempt from Australia’s tough anti-smoking laws because its a tradition for prostitutes and their customers to enjoy a cigarette together after having sex, an industry lobby group said on Sunday. The Australian Adult Entertainment Industry (AAEI) argues that working girls and their clients shouldn’t have to leave the brothel to light up.
In conference rooms and in academic papers, the experts call it ”pervasive pre-famine conditions”. In the village, squatting on his brick-sized wooden stool in the red dirt of East Africa, Lokuwam Lokitalauk calls it a death sentence. His curses ricochet round the quiet village and his glaucoma-misted eyes dart off, surveying the stick-like spectres of children drifting listlessly about.
Sri Lanka’s key foreign aid donors will meet to reevaluate the troubled nation’s faltering peace process this week at a meeting in Tokyo as blood continues to be spilt in the south Asian nation. Japan’s peace envoy Yasushi Akashi is to host a meeting of the United States, the European Union and Norway in order to review their involvement in Sri Lanka’s faltering peace process.
South Africa is running out of ideas on how to pull Zimbabwe out of its crisis, turning to the United Nations to take the lead after a series of failures in tackling its biggest foreign policy headache. President Thabo Mbeki is now pinning his hopes on outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to resolve the Zimbabwean imbroglio, although Harare has rejected UN intervention.
The United Nations, aid agencies and national governments were scrambling on Sunday to get food and supplies to Indonesian towns and cities that have been reduced to rubble by an earthquake that left thousands dead or homeless. As photos and footage emerged of stunned, anguished survivors limping over crumbled buildings, agencies and governments offered millions of dollars, tonnes of supplies and hundreds of personnel.
Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a baby girl, United States media reported on Saturday. People magazine cited an official spokesperson for the actors as saying the child named Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt was born on May 27, at night, in Namibia
Rescue workers on Sunday searched frantically for survivors from the earthquake in central Indonesia that killed more than 3Â 300 people and left 200Â 000 homeless. A day after the earthquake rocked Java, grieving relatives buried their dead, hospitals overflowed with bloodied and bruised casualties, and aid workers rushed in food and medical supplies.
A powerful earthquake in Indonesia killed more than 3 000 people on Saturday, reducing whole villages to rubble in the nation’s worst catastrophe since the 2004 Asian tsunami. Countless victims were buried alive when the 6,2 magnitude quake struck at dawn, turning houses into tombs of stone and setting off panic in a country that has been plagued by natural disasters.