She lives in splendid palaces with servants forever at her beck and call, and meets thousands of people every year, but in her private life, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II leads a reclusive, solitary, sometimes ordinary life. During a regular day at Buckingham Palace, her official London residence, Queen Elizabeth is woken at 7.30am by a chambermaid who brings in her tea tray.
Tensions between Chad and Sudan rose further on Saturday following a rebel attack that observers say could yet lead to the fall of Chadian President Idriss Déby. In the Chadian capital N’djamena, Déby accused his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir of ”genocide” in the west Sudanese region of Darfur and branded him a ”traitor”, a day after severing diplomatic ties with Khartoum.
It is fast-growing, drought-resistant and sprawls over hectares of land in Kenya’s arid regions, providing fuel and furniture material for thousands of impoverished herders and farmers. But once hailed as a miracle cure for land degradation and desertification, the rapidly spreading prosopis tree has become an environmental menace that many wish had never been introduced to the East African nation.
The Soweto township is soon to open its first luxury hotel as tourists in increasing numbers stream to the suburb, which was once the focal point in the fight against apartheid. The upmarket hotel is to rise in the historic heart of Kliptown as Soweto experiences a growing economic boom since the advent of democracy in 1994.
It would seem, to Middle Eastern eyes scanning the latest headlines online on Saturday, yet further evidence of secret plans for the conflict that everyone is now dreading. Britain, it was suggested, had taken part in an American war game that simulated an invasion of Iran, in an apparent mockery of both countries’ insistence that they want a diplomatic — not a military — solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.
An empty watchtower overlooks a deserted road lined with rusting vehicle parts. The only traffic is a pregnant bitch and a mule and cart. This is Gaza’s economic lifeline, the Karni crossing into Israel, which is supposed to handle 1Â 300 containers of merchandise and food per day in order to sustain 1,3-million people.
These are hard times for those who question mainstream religion. We live in a world inflamed by the godly, from rabble-rousing Christian fundamentalists to Muslim fanatics. In the 1960s and 1970s, doubters may have run the show, but today the God squad rules. Only the foolhardy risk its wrath.
A career-best performance by Kyle Mills saw South Africa in trouble on 266 for eight at close of play on the first day of the first Castle Lager Test against New Zealand at Supersport Park on Saturday. Graeme Smith won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch that appeared to offer something to the bowlers.
All Blacks flyhalf Daniel Carter became the ninth player to reach 600 points in super rugby, surpassing 150 points for the season, as the Canterbury Crusaders beat South Africa’s Cheetahs 53-17 in a Super 14 match on Saturday. Carter scored two tries, kicked two penalties and converted six of the Crusaders’ seven tries to take 28 points from the match.
Pope Benedict XVI is trying to combat efforts to rehabilitate Christianity’s most hated villain after the presentation this month of a newly discovered ”gospel according to Judas”. In his first Easter sermon at St Peter’s Basilica, the German pope said the 13th apostle was a greedy liar: ”He evaluated Jesus in terms of power and success. For him, only power and success were real. Love didn’t count.”