Staff Reporter
No image available
/ 19 October 2006

Complete Darwin works put online

The complete evolutionary works of Charles Darwin have gone online, including the stolen notebook he carried in his pocket around the Galapagos Islands. Tens of thousands of pages of text and pictures and audio files have been made available, including some previously unpublished manuscripts and diaries of the great British scientist.

No image available
/ 19 October 2006

Banned ‘World Cup air’ vendor blows off steam

A Chinese entrepreneur is suing a Beijing trade bureau for denying him a permit to sell bags of ”World Cup air” and for scotching his plans to bottle and sell ”2008 Olympic air”, a newspaper said on Thursday. Li Jie, who describes himself as chief executive of the Lunar Embassy to China and once tried to sell land on the moon, sought a permit to sell ”World Cup air” for 50 yuan (,30).

No image available
/ 19 October 2006

Grumpy Kazakhs invite Borat to ‘his’ land, at last

Alarmed by the antics of a fictional TV reporter who portrays their country as a nation of horse urine-drinking misogynists, Kazakh authorities have invited the British comedian who plays the character to come and see the truth for himself. Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh first deputy foreign ministe, asked British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to visit the vast, oil-rich steppe nation.

No image available
/ 19 October 2006

Kenyan football officials claim Fifa prejudice

Kenyan football officials on Thursday accused Fifa of applying double standards in its condemnation of the country as they braced for another suspension for the second time in as many years. Fifa’s executive committee proposed on Wednesday that Kenya be suspended for failing to respect agreements to resolve recurrent problems in the country’s football association.

No image available
/ 19 October 2006

Meles urges Eritrea, rebels to choose dialogue

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Thursday urged Eritrea and rebel groups he said it supports to talk peace and stop trying to destabilise his Horn of Africa country. The United Nations said Eritrea’s decision to move troops and tanks into a United Nations buffer zone between the two countries was a ”major breach” of a 2000 peace agreement.