The WHO has not yet raised its global pandemic alert from the current normal Phase 3. The organization says it needs more information before taking such a decision. It’s believed this is a new strain of swine flu, which is spreading from human to human. Influenza experts have been saying for some time that the world is due when another flu pandemic. Every effort is now being made to contain this outbreak. But as with many new diseases, the WHO says this one is unpredictable, poorly understood as yet and potentially very serious.
The leader of the African National Congress Jacob Zuma has promised that his party will govern for everyone in South Africa. Following the ANC’s general election victory, Mr. Zuma will become the country’s president in 2 week’s time. He said it was time to bury mistrust, uncertainty and tension.
We will form a government that takes care of your needs to the best of our ability. Working together, we will make it a government for all South Africans. The new president of the Republic will be a president for all, and he will work to unite to the country around a program of action that will see an improvement in the delivery of services.
The authorities in Ethiopia say they’ve arrested 35 people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government. Officials say plans and weapons were found at the homes of the suspects. Elizabeth Blunt reports.
The Ethiopian government says that the people arrested in Friday’s raids fall into 2 groups, some were soldiers and others civil servants. But all 35, they say, were members of Berhanu Nega Ginbot 7 or May the 15th Movement. A government spokesman Ermias Legesse said that this group was an illegal organization because it had not been registered as a political party and because its leadership had made statements in United States, indicating that it wanted to overthrow the government by unconstitutional means.
The American Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has met Iraqis working in civil society groups and reconstruction projects during a visit to Baghdad. She told them the United States would work closely with Iraq as foreign troops withdraw, and she didn’t believe a recent rise in violence would be sustained.
This is the world news from the BBC.
Reports from Pakistan’s northwest frontier province say more than 10 children have been killed in an explosion. Police said a group of children found a bomb outside a girls’ primary school at Lower Dir and were killed when it went off. Elsewhere in the province officials say Taliban fighters have withdrawn from Buner district days after taking control of the area.
Finance ministers from rich and developing countries have had calls for more help for African countries feeling the effects of the global economic crisis. The pleas were made at a meeting in Washington of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Tanzanian Finance Minister, Mustafa Mkuls, said rich countries should use part of their stimulus resources to help poorer ones.
I would like to take this opportunity to call upon developed countries to first honor their audio pledges. Second, the rich countries should provide part of these stimulus resources to developing countries to enable these countries deal with the threat they are facing.
Earlier the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the IMF needed urgently to be overhauled to give emerging economies such as China a greater say in how it’s run.
United Nations top Humanitarian official John Holmes has gone to Sri Lanka to push for a greater protection for thousands of Tamil civilians in and around the conflict zone in the north of the country. The UN wants the Sri Lankan government to help humanitarian agencies enter the area where many people are trapped by fighting between the military and Tamil rebels.
The authorities in Saudi Arabia say they’re trying to tackle a problem of what it deemed unnecessarily loud calls to prayer from mosques. The Islamic Affairs Minister Sheikh Salih al-Sheikh said some mosques were using such powerful loudspeakers that their calls to prayer could be heard as much as 5 kilometers away. He said this was unacceptably intrusive and meant that the words recited were often indistinct.
BBC news
