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Ghana are not afraid to play Italy or their other Group E opponents at the World Cup after receiving a boost with the return of midfielder Michael Essien. The West Africans, making their first World Cup appearance in Germany, were buoyed by Sunday’s 3-1 warm-up victory over South Korea.
The United Nations Security Council has arrived in Sudan with assurances that the UN has no intention of taking over the country and sees the government as a partner in promoting peace. The government has been very reluctant to allow a UN peacekeeping force to take over from the 7 000-strong African Union force now in conflict-wracked Darfur.
The diamond industry has promised much but done little to end the illegal trade in so-called blood diamonds, which fund wars in Africa, the British non-governmental organisation Global Witness said on Monday. Elements of the diamond industry ”continue to trade in conflict and illicit diamonds, while the rest of the industry turns a blind eye,” it said.
Islamic fundamentalists whose ideology is similar to the Taliban seized control of Somalia’s capital on Monday, unifying the city for the first time in more than a decade and posing a direct challenge to a fledging United Nations-backed government.
A vast tract of the Atlantic seabed more than 320km off shore is being claimed by a coalition of four European countries eager to expand their oil and gas prospecting rights. The joint submission to the United Nations by France, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom is based on a novel legal approach that is transforming the international politics of underwater prospecting.
A theme hotel built around the brand of a lads’ mag might strike the more refined traveller as somehow tacky. But context is everything: the new Maxim Hotel and Casino, costing ,2-billion, will open in Las Vegas, where no hotel worthy of the name does not boast a replica of the Great Temple of Ramses.
African investment received a shot in the arm with the launch of the Investment Climate Facility (ICF) for Africa, at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town recently. The forum also heard South African President Thabo Mbeki extend his theme of the ”Age of Hope”.
Former Movement for Democratic Change MP Roy Bennett was last week denied asylum by South Africa’s department of home affairs, which found that he does not face persecution in Zimbabwe. He has appealed against the decision to the Refugee Appeals Board. Bennett is affectionately known in Zimbabwe as Pachedu ("We can do it on our own").
The battle for South Deep, billed as the last piece of gold real estate on God’s green earth, could get a lot more interesting should AngloGold enter the fray alongside Harmony and Gold Fields. All three mining houses already own pieces of the gold mine through Western Areas, which has a 50% share of the mine.
Last week I received the following e-mail. It appeared to have emanated originally from some dusty fissure in the “humanities” division at the University of Cape Town. I use the word “division” advisedly. Our universities are gradually becoming wholly commercial in intent, their function to hand out degrees to recipients eager to get qualifications for jobs.