SOUTH AFRICA
LONDON - Britain honours Nelson Mandela by unveiling a bronze statue of South Africa's first black president alongside those of statesmen including Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. The statue takes its place in London's Parliament Square, looking towards the British Parliament - a site reserved for memorials to great leaders. Unusually, Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for his struggle against apartheid before becoming president in 1994, is being honoured with a statue during his lifetime.
PRETORIA – The Pretoria High Court blocks authorities from changing the name of South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, on road signs, fuelling a racially charged debate over efforts to change names dating from the colonial and apartheid periods. The injunction, issued by Pretoria High Court Judge Bill Prinsloo, bars Pretoria's municipal government from changing the city's name to Tshwane, in honour of an early tribal leader, on road signs, pending a court challenge by white groups opposed to the move.
AFRICA
KIGALI – Security officials from Africa’s volatile Great Lakes region meet in Rwanda to discuss possible joint operations to stamp out rebels in lawless eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The meeting is aimed at examining the progress made by the DRC in the months since the group’s meeting in April, in which officials from Rwanda, Uganda, Congo, and Burundi agreed that the Congolese would have two months to crack down on a host of militia groups operating in the dense forests of its mineral east.
LUSAKA – Zambia withdraws corruption charges against the wife of ex-president Frederick Chiluba, Regina Chiluba, after failure by the prosecution to find witnesses to support their case at her trial. The charges, laid in October, accuse Regina of making $120 000 worth of purchases with State funds. The State may rearrest Chiluba once it has firmed up its case. In a separate trial, Zambia has charged Frederick Chiluba with stealing $488 000 while in office between 1991 and 2001.
WORLD
NEW YORK – The United Nations Security Council gives preliminary support to a proposed peace force spearheaded by European Union troops to tackle spillover violence from Sudan’s Darfur region in Chad and the Central African Republic. In a unanimously approved statement, the 15-member council express readiness to authorise what it calls a “multidimensional presence” in eastern Chad and the north-eastern Central African Republic.
LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel announce a global health campaign to target aid more effectively at the basic needs of poor countries. The International Health Partnership, launched on September 5, aims to reduce child and maternal mortality and tackle diseases such as HIV/Aids by building a long-term infrastructure in developing countries. A lack of health workers – many of whom move to developed countries after training – clinics, supplies of essential medicines and sustainable health financing systems are among the main obstacles.
NEW YORK – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sets ambitious goals for a tour of Sudan, Chad and Libya, saying that he aims to lay the foundations of lasting peace in violence-racked Darfur. Ban says that he will press the Sudanese government for its full support, warning that the massive peace mission due to go to Darfur will come to nothing without cooperation from Sudan's government.
Describing what he calls a three-point plan to tackle Darfur peacekeeping, political talks and aid, he says his trip will seek to "push the pace" on peace negotiations, which some rebel groups have so far stayed away from.
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