The relatives of those who died in the September 2004 Beslan school siege vowed to continue their campaign for justice on Friday night after the sole surviving hostage-taker was convicted on murder and terrorism charges and sentenced to life in prison.
Thirty-one people died in hospital following the explosion of a tanker truck in northern Benin, bringing the total dead to more than sixty, a local hospital official said on Friday. The accident occurred late on Wednesday, when a tanker truck transporting fuel to Mali overturned near the town of Porga, around 500km north of Benin’s commercial capital, Cotonou.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has always been given a warm welcome in the United States, where he is seen as a doggedly loyal, eloquent ally. But on this, possibly his last trip to Washington as prime minister, the affection seemed to be accompanied with sympathy.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) should explain why it postponed a documentary on President Thabo Mbeki scheduled to be screened last week. This was the view of the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom of Expression Institute, which issued separate statements on Friday.
Arcelor, the pan-European steel group, on Friday torpedoed Mittal’s latest hostile takeover bid by buying Russia’s Severstal in an agreed €13-billion deal designed to create an ”unrivalled global champion” out of reach of its Indian-owned predator.
United States-based company LifeGem has developed a way to turn the remains of your loved one into a diamond in about 24 weeks. It does this by extracting carbon from the ashes of the body, subjecting it to intense heat to create graphite and then placing it in a special diamond press which replicates the awesome forces deep within the Earth.
The South African economy has shown resilience by withstanding a 144c petrol price increase over the past two years, but production costs threaten a benign outlook, figures released recentl show. Statistics South Africa reported that inflation excluding mortgage rates rose 3,7% in April. This was slightly below forecast.
The battle for control of Cape Town goes to the streets of Tafelsig — a poor coloured suburb of Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats — in less than a fortnight in what is becoming a contest between mayor Helen Zille and the Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille. Although the two are not candidates in the June 7 municipal by-election, both parties are investing heavily in the election.
It’s a pity that Dubya doesn’t have people in his employ who are nearly as efficient at invasions as the Dodge division of DaimlerChrysler. After 15 hours of flying, the South African contingent would have been forgiven for wondering just where on the planet we were for the international launch of the Dodge Caliber, writes Sukasha Singh.
The past 10 years of his life had savaged the dilapidated novelist. His cheeks, once chubby and flushed, were flaking onion-skin drawn tight over a mangrove swamp of burst blood vessels; and his eyes — little round beads that had blinked quizzically from the back covers of 500-million paperbacks — were useless egg-whites swimming in two oily pans.