(SAPA) - A shortage of tickets rather than high prices will hamper South Africans who want to see any of the 2010 Soccer World Cup matches,chief executive of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Danny Jordaan said on Tuesday.
"There will be more than 3-million tickets in total, but this is the World Cup and so we would be lucky if we have one million of those available for South Africans," Jordaan said at a conference in Johannesburg on the readiness of the accommodation industry for the tournament. The tickets for the 64 matches that will take place in South Africa during 2010 will likely go on sale in 2009. In the meantime the first step for teams to qualify to play in the World Cup will be taken when the preliminary draw takes place in Durban in November. Jordaan said 202 countries were expected to take part in the draw... continue reading

(PANA) - Kenyan women have resolved to play an active role in this year's general election in a bid to break the circle male dominance in the governance of the East African nation, media reports said here Monday.
The women, who met here Sunday to strategize on the way forward, said they were out to form a critical mass in the next parliament to make steady the leadership of the country, which they said is steep in perennial crises that have prevented sustained economic growth and social justice.
"We're very serious and we shall not do business with dishonest leaders. Kenyan women will no longer be taken for granted again," said Health minister Charity Ngilu, who chaired the meeting at which she reiterated her desire to seek the presidency in the polls scheduled for December this year... continue reading

(PANA) – Malian President Amadou Toum ani Toure on Monday inaugurated the Alioune Blondin Bèye peacekeeping academy set up to train African soldiers in international humanitarian law and peacekeeping duties.
It will seek to develop partnerships with similar academies, including the War Academy of Abuja, Nigeria, to equip the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with a "coherent, complete and sound" training mechanism.
The outcome of a French-Malian partnership, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the United States supported creation of the academy.
It was constructed at a cost of 5.2 billion francs CFA, with the Malian government providing 1.2 billion francs CFA.
Last Wednesday, the Malian government decided to name the institution after Alioune Blondin Bèye, former Malian minister and UN secretary general representative to Angola.
He was killed in a plane crash on 26 June 1998 while on a mission to Angola in a move to help end the war between the current regime and the then rebel Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi.

(SAPA) - A perplexed Stellenbosch gardener discovered a Nile crocodile this week in the Eerste River in the Western Cape in South Africa, the Cape Argus reported on Friday.
Lawrence Dsoko rushed to inform his employer, Emma Finnemore of Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch, of the 1,2m, 3 to 4kg reptile perched on a rock on the border of the property. "I didn't believe it when my gardener told me, but I went to have a look and sure enough there was a croc lying on the rock," Finnemore said.
By the time she got there, CapeNature was already on the scene, and the croc was still sitting on the rock. A few minutes later, it moved into the water. "It swam up and down and that's when we got the nets in there and herded it into the net," said Patrick Shone, conservation manager for the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve... continue reading

The international advocacy group Oxfam is taking on U.S. coffee retailer Starbucks over the chain's reluctance to grant Ethiopian coffee farmers the right to control their coffee trademarks, something the company has promised to do earlier this year.
Oxfam ran an ad in the Seattle Times Wednesday urging the corporate icon to give Ethiopian farmers a greater share of the retail value of their coffees. "Starbucks refuses to sign an agreement recognising Ethiopia's ownership of the trademarks of the country's coffees -- the same coffees that millions of poor farmers depend on to make a living," said the ad, which ran with a picture of an old and grey-haired African farmer.
The advertisement disputes statements made by a Starbucks senior vice president in testimony to the British on Feb. 27, in which he is quoted as saying, "We reached an agreement with [the Ethiopian] government to pursue our shared vision around the promotion of Ethiopian coffees."
In mid-February, Starbucks issued a joint release with the government of Ethiopia stating that the company would no longer stand in the country's way to obtain trademarks...continue reading

(SAPA) - Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal all won African Cup of Nations qualifiers this weekend to stay at the top of their groups.
Ivory Coast, Togo, Angola and Tunisia, four of the five teams that qualified for last year's World Cup, also won. Ghana, the other World Cup participant, automatically qualifies for the 2008 tournament as host and faces Brazil on Tuesday in a friendly in Stockholm, Sweden.
Nigeria played under coach Berti Vogts for the first time Saturday, and Nwankwo Kanu scored in the 75th minute to give the Super Eagles a 1-0 win over Uganda in Group 3.
Vogts guided Germany to the 1996 European Championship title and also coached Kuwait and Scotland. Achille Webo scored a pair of first-half goals to lead Cameroon over Liberia 3-1 in Group 5. Webo scored twice in the first 24 minutes to put the hosts ahead 2-0. Francis Doe pulled Liberia within a goal before halftime, but Idrissou Mouhamadou added an insurance goal in the 87th...continue reading

By Lucky Sindane (Johannesburg News Agency) - It's awards season again; we've had the Oscars, the Grammys and the Brits, and now it's time for the MTN South African Music Awards, or Samas.
Some of Joburg's top musicians were nominated for the prestigious accolades. The who's who of the South African music industry - dressed in their bling-bling best - descended on the stylish Design Quarter, north of Johannesburg, where the nominees for the top five categories were announced. These are Best Female Artist, Best Male Artist, Best Duo/Group, Best Newcomer and Album of the Year.
Simphiwe Dana, who was named Best Newcomer and Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2005; Vusi Mahlasela, winner of three Samas in 1998; and newcomer Siphokazi have each been nominated five times... continue reading

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By Geoffrey Muga, director of  Cities in Partnership with Communities in Nairobi. Local governance challenges continue to choke Kisumu Municipal Council, the third largest town in Kenya. This despite its strategic role as the leading commercial, fishing, communication and administrative centre within the Lake Victoria region. A study conducted in 2005 by Cities in Partnership with Communities (CIPAC), a national governance civil society organization in Kenya, attributed the situation to several factors.
The overriding factor that has compromised good governance in the municipality is the institutionalized high level of dependency of the councils on the central government for strategic decisions. While local authorities in Africa have remained creatures and appendages of the central government even in countries with strong systems of devolution such as South Africa and Nigeria, the Kenyan case is further dampened by the flawed Local Government Act Cap 265... continue reading

Ghana marks bicentenary of slave trade +++ EU assisting in revamp of sugar cane industry +++ Zambia: Is China Sneaking in Deals Through the Back Door? +++ WHO certifies 12 countries guinea worm free +++ Mauritania: Ould Cheikh Abdallahi elected president +++ Shell reopens oil facility in Southern Nigeria +++ BADEA approves US$68 million for 22 projects in Africa +++ Zimbabwean archbishop calls for protests to oust Mugabe +++ Starbucks asked to honour Ethiopian coffee pledge