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[ad_1] Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pik Botha, in a 2013 BBC interview, praises Nelson Mandela A key figure during South Africa's transition from the apartheid era, Pik Botha, has died at the age of 86. Mr Botha served as his country's foreign minister for 17 years until the end of the apartheid era in 1994. He spent most of his career defending the apartheid system, even though he was regarded as a liberal figure. But he also served as a minister in Nelson Mandela's first post-apartheid government, praising Mr Mandela as a healing figure. Mr Botha's son, Piet, confirmed to South African media that his father had died during the night. Roelof Frederik Botha was born in 1932 in Rustenburg, Transvaal. He began his diplomatic career in the South African mission in Stockholm in 1953 and turned to politics in the 1970s. His profile rose as he became an envoy to the US and UN, then assumed the post of foreign min...

[ad_1] Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Kavanaugh's has been one of the most contentious confirmation processes for years Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court seat looks all but confirmed after he won the backing of key senators despite an FBI investigation into sexual assault allegations. Republican Senator Susan Collins and Joe Manchin, a Democrat, both indicated their backing for the judge on Friday. Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation would tilt America's highest court in favour of conservatives. The court has the final say on issues such as abortion and gun control. A final vote on whether Judge Kavanaugh will join the nine-member panel could take place as soon as Saturday. If confirmed, the position is for life. Hours before the undecided senators indicated their backing, the US Senate narrowly a...

[ad_1] WASHINGTON: The US Senate girded Friday for a critical, too- close-to-call vote on moving ahead with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, as Republicans brushed aside complaints by Democrats that a new FBI probe of sexual assault allegations against him was rushed and incomplete. A final vote could come Saturday on President Donald Trump's embattled candidate, who if approved would seal a conservative majority on the nine-seat court for decades. It is not a done deal, however. Republicans hold a 51-49 majority in the chamber and three of their members are seen as undecided on Kavanaugh, as a confirmation process that has gripped the city and the nation and aggravated already deep political divisions reaches its climax with just weeks to go before mid-term elections. Under new rules approved last year, 50 votes are needed for victory in Friday's procedural vote. It is on ending debate on the confirmation and moving to a formal and definitive confirm...

[ad_1] PARIS: An executive summary of the UN special report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be vetted in South Korea this week, line-by-line, by diplomats under the 195-nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A draft version of this "Summary for Policymakers" obtained by AFP underscores how quickly global warming has outstripped humanity's attempts to tame it, and outlines stark options -- all of them requiring a makeover of the global economy -- for avoiding the worst ravages of climate change. Here are key findings, grounded in some 6,000 peer-reviewed scientific studies: TOPLINE FINDINGS The report lays out what it will take to prevent Earth's average surface temperature from rising beyond 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Given an increase to date of a full degree Celsius, and our current trajectory toward an unliveable plus 3C or 4C world, the already narrow pathway to a 1.5C cap has become a tight...