A shortage of fresh water will crimp South Africa’s economic growth if government fails to decrease demand and increase supply of this essential commodity, World Wildlife Fund-South Africa warned on Friday. The conservation organisation said if current usage rates continued, water demand would exceed supply by 2025.
Dissident Darfur rebels said on Friday they would sign an African Union-mediated peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region and urged hold-outs to join them. Despite missing a Wednesday midnight deadline to agree to the pact or face possible sanctions, they said the AU was preparing an annex to the May 5 accord for them.
Defending champion Rafael Nadal took his clay-court winning streak to 55 matches on Friday as he moved smoothly into the French Open third round. But 2004 champion Gaston Gaudio hammered out an ominous warning that he is returning to his best form by disposing of 2003 winner Juan Carlos Ferrero to move into the last 16.
Nearly a week after the deadly quake in central Indonesia, new patients streamed into area hospitals on Friday, seeking treatment for quake-related injuries, medical staff said. ”We continue to receive new patients injured in the quake,” said Maridi, who works at the Sardjito general hospital in Yogyakarta, the main city in the quake zone.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s defence team has some reading to do before his war-crimes trial begins — 32Â 000 pages of documents and witness statements compiled by prosecutors. That gives them plenty to do while officials work out where the trial will be held and where the accused warlord might be jailed if convicted.
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German football chiefs have called for the nation to protest against neo-Nazi marches during this month’s World Cup finals and show the world that a unified Germany has no time for xenophobia. A number of neo-Nazi organisations are expected to use the World Cup, beginning in just seven days time, as a platform to voice their opinions.
A decision on whether or not to establish a ”Gateway to Antarctica” centre in Cape Town will be taken at the end of the year, the Department of Science and Technology said on Friday. Tenders had been received for a six-month pre-feasibility study, and the service provider picked to compile this report would be chosen at the end of June.
As more security-guard-strike-related train violence flared in different provinces, black security employers agreed to sit down for talks with the unions over the weekend. Black employers also plan to meet the South African National Security Employers’ Association on Friday to convince it to join the negotiations on Saturday and Sunday under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Eskom reports that electricity demand in the Western Cape continues to grow as winter settles in, but that the measures put in place in terms of its recovery plan are proving successful in maintaining stable supply of power to the region. "Koeberg unit one is currently operating at 80% of its capacity," the power utility said.
A group of eight Westerners — six British, one American and one Canadian — were kidnapped on Friday while working on an offshore oil rig in Nigeria, the platform’s owners said. A group of people climbed on board the Bulford Dolphin facility off Nigeria’s southern coast at about 4am local time and seized the employees.