Travelling across the Siberian steppe in a manner reserved for reclusive world leaders like North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, or sages like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho is getting a rapturous reception in his specially converted train.
"For all his apparent loyalty to gold, Brett Kebble was a man of paper, a man dragged by his paper creations into a vortex of debt. How differently things might have turned out had he stuck to gold, a quiet life in the suburbs and a modicum of recognition." In this edited extract from <i>Brett Kebble: The Inside Story</i>, Barry Sergeant takes a look at the slain businessman’s shady empire.
United States authorities found 000 stuffed in a freezer at the home of a US lawmaker under federal investigation for corruption and shady deals in West Africa, court documents showed on Monday. Democratic representative William Jefferson was involved in bribery schemes and suspect business deals in Nigeria and Ghana, according to an FBI affidavit.
Acts of violence have killed nearly 2 500 people and forced more than 85 000 to flee their homes in Iraq, the United Nations assistance mission in Iraq said on Tuesday in a March-April report on the human rights situation. The fatality count was comprised of death certificates issued by the Baghdad morgue, the report said.
”The privacy you’re concerned about is largely an illusion. All you have to give up is your illusions, not any of your privacy.” That wasn’t Vodacom boss Alan Knott-Craig comforting his customers about the new kit he will shortly be installing on his network to help government snoops listen in on cellphone calls. It was Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, explaining why concerns about civil liberties should be no obstacle to his proposal that all Americans be required to carry ID cards.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) will on Tuesday serve notice for secondary strikes in support of the wage demands of security guards, union leaders said. ”We will be serving notice tomorrow [Tuesday] for secondary strikes from other sectors of Satawu,” the union’s security industry spokesperson, Jackson Simon, said on Monday.
A severe earthquake estimated to measure 6,7 on the Richter scale on Monday struck in the north-eastern Pacific coastal area of Russia, the Hong Kong observatory said. The quake struck at 7.21pm Hong Kong time and its epicentre was located some 870km east of the Siberian city of Magadan, the observatory said.
Coastguards escorted to land hundreds of migrants floating at sea off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Monday, causing an emergency at its overwhelmed transit centre, the Ansa news agency reported. Coastguards intercepted three vessels, carrying some 400 suspected illegal immigrants, to the Italian island south of Sicily early on Monday.
As many as 10 Atlantic hurricanes could form in coming months, and up to four of them could hit the United States, experts said on Monday, urging residents to prepare for potentially devastating storms. ”The outlook calls for a very active 2006 season,” the National Weather Service said in a report released on Monday.
Cape mayor Helen Zille spent part of Monday afternoon briefing Capetonians on how to seek redress from the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union for damage inflicted during a violent march last week. Her spokesperson, Robert Macdonald, said about 150 to 200 people attended the meeting at the Civic Centre.