Johannesburg — ZIMBABWE, which is looking for $10bn to finance its economic recovery plan and urgently needs $2bn of that sum, has to date secured only $400m from African states.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) had undertaken to raise the $2bn by now, with SA and Botswana pledging credit lines and budget support of $800m and $70m respectively.

The funding to date, which includes $200m from SADC and another $200m from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, is intended to meet urgent working capital requirements for local companies, but is a drop in the ocean of need.

Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube has said African countries had committed to providing the credit lines to companies in Zimbabwe.

SADC's self-imposed deadline to raise $2bn in emergency funding for Zimbabwe, which was decided on at a recent summit in Swaziland, expired two weeks ago.

Most states involved say they

Credits: AP

Johannesburg — ZIMBABWE, which is looking for $10bn to finance its economic recovery plan and urgently needs $2bn of that sum, has to date secured only $400m from African states.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) had undertaken to raise the $2bn by now, with SA and Botswana pledging credit lines and budget support of $800m and $70m respectively.

The funding to date, which includes $200m from SADC and another $200m from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, is intended to meet urgent working capital requirements for local companies, but is a drop in the ocean of need.

Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube has said African countries had committed to providing the credit lines to companies in Zimbabwe.

SADC's self-imposed deadline to raise $2bn in emergency funding for Zimbabwe, which was decided on at a recent summit in Swaziland, expired two weeks ago.

Credits: AP

Johannesburg — ZIMBABWE, which is looking for $10bn to finance its economic recovery plan and urgently needs $2bn of that sum, has to date secured only $400m from African states.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) had undertaken to raise the $2bn by now, with SA and Botswana pledging credit lines and budget support of $800m and $70m respectively.

The funding to date, which includes $200m from SADC and another $200m from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, is intended to meet urgent working capital requirements for local companies, but is a drop in the ocean of need.

Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube has said African countries had committed to providing the credit lines to companies in Zimbabwe.

SADC's self-imposed deadline to raise $2bn in emergency funding for Zimbabwe, which was decided on at a recent summit in Swaziland, expired two weeks ago.

Credit: Ap

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's top health official said Thursday the number of new swine flu cases is stabilizing in the nation at the epicenter of the outbreak. Health secretary Jose Angel Cordova told a news conference he hoped the trend will continue and that a vaccine would be available in six months. European health ministers said they would speed efforts to develop such a vaccine.

The World Health Organization's flu chief, reacting to similar comments from other Mexican officials, cautioned that case numbers often go up and down, and said the WHO had yet to see concrete evidence that swine flu, believed to have killed 168 people in Mexico, was leveling off.

"It's a mixed pattern out there," Dr. Keiji Fukuda said. "What's happening in one part of the country is not necessarily what's happening in another part of the country."

New cases of swine flu were confirmed in the United States and Europe a day after the WHO said the virus threatened to become a global epidemic and raised its alert level to Phase 5, the second-highest stage, for the first time.


Credit: AP