CAPE TOWN – South African Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, announces that school children will be taught a Bill of Responsibilities along with the Bill of Rights. The Bill, which has been largely drawn up by the National Religious Leaders Forum, contains responsibilities mirroring those contained in the Bill of Rights. It includes the responsibility of ensuring the right to equality, human dignity, life, family, parental care and education. It also includes responsibilities to ensure the right to work, freedom and security, the right to property, freedom of religion and the right to a safe environment.

CAPE TOWN – A parliamentary committee warns that the litany of problems besetting the Land Bank suggest that the institution is on the brink of collapse. Reacting to the bank's turnaround strategy presentation to the National Assembly's land and agriculture committee, African National Congress MP Salam Abram says it will be difficult for the bank to survive its current crisis, dismissing objectives contained in the bank's turnaround plan as a wish list. Abram insists the bank's failure to investigate circumstances surrounding the disappearance of millions of rand allegedly diverted to unauthorised projects; its "tainted" image; and the changing of CEOs are some of the critical problems that will jeopardise the plan.

AFRICA

DAR ES SALAAM – On the third day of his five-nation Africa tour, US president George W Bush announces a plan to distribute bed nets to protect 5,2-million Tanzanian children from malaria. In addition to providing bed nets to protect against mosquitoes, the malaria initiative supports indoor spraying of insecticide as well as antimalarial drugs and medicine to treat the disease.

HARARE – Britain calls for effective international monitoring of next month's Zimbabwean elections, saying conditions for the poll are "far from free and fair". Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has announced presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections for March 29 and is seeking another five-year term to extend his 28-year rule of the once-prosperous Southern African country.

WORLD

BELGRADE – Europe's major powers and the US announce that they recognise Kosovo's new independence, as Serbs react with anger and some states warn that its secession from Serbia is setting a dangerous precedent. Serbian President Boris Tadic has told the United Nations Security Council that unless it stops Kosovo's independence, it will tell the world that no country's sovereignty and borders are safe. Recognition is a relief for Pristina, which has nervously awaited the West's expected blessing of its secession, but a black day for Serbia, which vows never to concede the loss of a spiritual homeland steeped in myth.

KABUL – A suicide bomber kills more than 80 people at a picnic spot in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. The attack is reportedly the most deadly since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. The attack happened in a field where a crowd of people including police watching dog-fights in Arghandab had gathered. Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid says the blast is the work of Afghanistan's enemies, a term used by the government to refer to Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda militant allies.

HAVANA – Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro announces that he will not return to lead the country as president, retiring as Head of State 49 years after seizing power in an armed revolution. Castro, 81, said in a statement to the country that he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on February 24, 2008.

BRASILIA – Lawmakers from the world's major industrial nations and five emerging economies gather in Brazil to discuss a global climate change treaty currently under consideration. The meeting of 100 lawmakers includes the Group of Eight industrial countries - Britain, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Canada and Japan - and fast-developing nations China, Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico. The gathering is the first of its kind for legislators from wealthy and developing countries to help shape the post-Kyoto Protocol agreement.