Archbishop Desmond Tutu dubbed South Africa the “Rainbow Nation” because of its multiethnic composition. It is said that as president, Nelson Mandela adopted the term as a slogan of the reconciliation he advanced in the country’s newly developing multicultural diversity after segregationist apartheid ideology ended in 1994. In one of the continent’s most economically prosperous [...]

Israeli soldiers praying at the wailing wall. “…And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35:10) It is a 60-year-old country that cites its origin in the foundations of [...]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans to sell 403.3 metric tons of the Fund’s gold holdings to create an endowment with the profits, it was announced Tuesday. The proposed sale is part of a broadening of the Fund’s investment authority, overwhelmingly approved by its Board of Governors, May 5, a key element of the proposed [...]

Getting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright away from the microphone and spotlight last week would have been like trying to pry the hunting rifle from Charlton Heston’s cold, dead hands. The public was at the same time entertained as it was mortified, as God’s spokesman for the Trinity United Church of Christ eviscerated the bloat of [...]

U.S. President George Bush plans to attend the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics despite a potential boycott, according to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. It is important for the U.S., Negroponte indicates, to show the 1.3 billion Chinese people that they are welcome on the international stage. During his testimony before Congress, [...]

Prime Minister Robert Mugabe and President Canaan Banana, at Zimbabwe independence ceremony, April 18,1980 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has joined calls for a resolution of Zimbabwe’s political crisis stemming from President Robert Mugabe’s intransigence in holding on to power despite results which show his ZANU-PF party has lost parliamentary and presidential elections. Rice [...]

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, testified before Congress that American troops will stay in Iraq beyond 31st December 2008. Crocker says this is to ensure the next U.S. president will have a solid basis for making policy decisions when s/he takes office. To help support this statement, Crocker indicated while Al-Qaeda is on the [...]

Jaime Caruana, Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund, sumarizes the main points of the GFSR. The International Monetary Fund’s latest Global Financial Stability Report is warning that the credit crunch that has started in the United States, spreading to other developed ecponomies now threatens emerging economies [...]

Signs of the Times The week in 2008 Christendom celebrates the Prince of Peace’s entry into the city of peace, the world also observes the fifth anniversary of the start of a war that has cost an estimated one million lives and helped to send the global economy into possibly an irreparable tailspin. At least, [...]

After a month of talks led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with support from the head of the African Union, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, a power sharing deal has been arrived at in Kenya, that is acceptable to President Kibaki of the Party of National Unity (PNU) and Raila Odinga of the Orange [...]