British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expecting a significant United States move on multilateral debt relief for Africa in talks with President George Bush on Tuesday in Washington, or at a meeting of finance ministers from the leading industrialised nations at the weekend.
Police raided a technical college in Ethiopia’s capital on Tuesday, beating up students and firing rubber bullets on the second day of defiance of a government ban on demonstrations, witnesses said. Clashes between police and student demonstrators on Monday left a girl dead, seven people injured and hundreds arrested.
An Australian mining company on Tuesday denied complicity in the massacre last year of more than 100 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Melbourne legal firm Slater and Gordon said it is considering civil action against Anvil Mining on behalf of three Congolese people affected by the massacre.
Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo has accused the United Nations of treating African nations like ”colonies”, by siding with their former colonial rulers in decisions about the continent. ”As far as Côte d’Ivoire goes, the Security Council systematically turns to France,” Gbagbo told Angolan state media on Monday.
The strike by Metrorail workers that has been delaying tens of thousands of commuters for the past two days can be resolved for about R1-million a year, the Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Metrorail spokesperson said the company cannot afford the increase demanded by workers.
North West-based black economic empowerment (BEE) company Bafokeng Investment Services has for R5,4-million acquired six million shares, or a 27% stake, in IT group Alliance Data Corporation Holdings (ADC), the AltX-listed firm announced on Tuesday. ADC provides software solutions focused on the mining industry.
”It could not have come at a worse time,” was how Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter on Monday described the one-game Fifa suspension that will keep the mesmerising Benni McCarthy out of next Saturday’s crucial World Cup qualifying game against Ghana at the FNB Stadium. McCarthy received a second yellow card on Saturday.
Tests by Japanese electronics maker Sharp have found an air-purifier using plasmacluster ion technology was 99% effective in killing-off the bird flu virus in a controlled environment. Plasmacluster have ions also proved effective against 26 other kinds of harmful airborne substances, including bacteria, mould fungi, viruses and allergens.
Killer rabbits, flatulent Frenchmen, giant knights who say ”Ni!” — it is the kind of daft British humour one would not expect to storm New York. But Spamalot, the musical based loosely on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, has romped home with the most prestigious prizes in this year’s Tony awards.
Thousands of tiny frogs rained on a town in north-western Serbia, Belgrade daily Blic reported on Tuesday. Strong winds brought storm clouds over Odzaci, 120km north-west of Belgrade, on Sunday afternoon, but instead of rain, down came the tiny amphibians, witnesses said.