Lesotho’s rocky earth this week coughed up a generous present for the country’s 40th independence celebrations: a 603 carat white diamond. The stone, which was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine, is the 15th largest ever found and has been named the Lesotho Promise.
It’s 2056. After a coup in Saudi Arabia, the new government announces it is cutting off supplies of its dwindling stock of oil to the United States. The White House responds by sending in the troops, but is forced to withdraw after Beijing says it will only continue shoring up the dollar if the military action is called off. The Americans have no choice but to comply. Fanciful? Ludicrous?
Regaining his rightful place as Bafana Bafana captain, Aaron Mokoena was appropriately the instrument whereby South African soccer regained its pride at a packed Independence Stadium in Lusaka on Sunday afternoon. The burly defender forged upfield for a free-kick from Delron Buckley and scored the only goal of the African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of South Africa’s largest black opposition party, has warned an ethnic war could be started by supporters of former deputy president Jacob Zuma complaining of an anti-Zulu conspiracy. South African President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma last year after he was implicated in a corruption scandal, but the charges were thrown out of court last month.
It is market day in Deurne. Beside the church, behind the row of pubs on the high street, under two dilapidated tower blocks, shoppers bustle around the sausage stand, the ground coffee stall, Morocco Dried Fruit and Nuts and Waffles of Flanders.
They came for Dr Khaula al-Tallal in a white Opel car after she took a taxi home to the middle class district of Qadissiya in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf. She worked for the medical committee that examined patients to assess them for welfare benefit. Crucially, however, she was a woman in a country where being a female professional increasingly invites a death sentence.
A fire in Fish Hoek, south of Cape Town, left about 600 people homeless on Sunday morning, Cape Town disaster management said. About 150 shacks were destroyed in the fire, said spokesperson Johan Minnie. ”Fire fighting was severely hampered by strong south-easterly winds, but we managed to put out the fire by 4.15am.”
Renault’s Fernando Alonso had a second successive Formula One title in his grasp on Sunday after Michael Schumacher’s hopes went up in smoke at the Japanese Grand Prix. The 25-year-old Spaniard cruised to a stunning victory after his Ferrari rival pulled over with a blown engine 17 laps from the end.
Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, the conscience of South Africa, celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday with a gala dinner attended by 1 200 guests, including former president Nelson Mandela. The celebrations for his birthday have lasted for weeks. On Friday, he was guest of honour at a ceremony at the University of South Africa.
Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who did most to uncover the Kremlin’s dirty war in Chechnya, was shot dead close to her Moscow apartment on Saturday in a killing that sent shock waves across Russia. Her body was found slumped in a lift next to a pistol and four bullets.