There’s more to healthy living than buying the odd slice of organic carrot cake, and our lackadaisical attitude to health is making bosses think more laterally about how to keep productivity up and absence levels down. Last year, United Kingdom businesses lost £12,2-billion through absence.
The announcement of Jan Ullrich’s team for the Tour de France, which starts on Saturday, is a telling illustration of the way Lance Armstrong has upped the stakes during his six-year domination of the race. Alongside Ullrich as he attempts to beat Armstrong for the first time in the five Tours that the pair have ridden head-to-head.
The African Union celebrates its third birthday next week suffering something of an identity crisis. The venue is apposite. Libya’s purpose-built administration centre of Sirte, along the Mediterranean coast from Tripoli, is where Moammar Gaddafi gave rein to his idea of a new united Africa.
United Nations special envoy Anna Tibaijuka is investigating the shanty town clearances in Zimbabwe that have provoked allegations of widespread human-rights abuses by President Robert Mugabe’s government. The demolitions form a backdrop to the row in Britain over deportations of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe.
Amid chaotic scenes in a Cairo court, the main opposition candidate in Egypt’s forthcoming presi-dential election went on trial on Tuesday accused of forgery. Ayman Nour, leader of the Al-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, has faced constant harassment since declaring his intention to run for the presidency and says the charges are trumped up. A conviction would automatically disqualify him from the election in September.
President George Bush, urging new help for Africa before an international meeting focused on its problems, said on Thursday he wants to double aid to the troubled continent over five years. Bush also urged South Africa to step up pressure on Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, about human rights abuses in his country.
The hasty and silent manner in which Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Koudou Gbagbo left Pretoria this week would indicate that he did not get the result he wanted from two days of wrangling about the peace process in his country. This round of negotiations, had certainly been billed as an occasion to pile the pressure on the rebel New Forces.
Northeastern Mexico braced for heavy rains along the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as Tropical Storm Gert approached land, threatening to douse areas already soaked by Hurricane Emily last week. Gert packed sustained winds of 65kph and was expected to move inland late on Sunday about 500km south of the United States border near Tampico,
Click on image for full-size view.
Wrinkles, receding graying hair and a furrowed brow attest to the difficulties of Tony Blair’s eight years in power. Yet despite a heart operation, back pain and the ever present rumblings of dissent within his governing Labour Party, Blair (52), insists his passion for politics is undiminished.