A Nasa spacecraft sailed within 240km of a comet to take a closer look at one of the solar system’s most ghostly visitors. Instead of a grubby, fluffy object of snow and dark gravel, Comet Wild-2 proved to be a miniature world marked by broad mesas, craters and canyons with flat floors and sheer walls.
A major triptych by Francis Bacon is about to see the light after languishing for more than 30 years in the store of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Two Figures Lying on a Bed With Attendants (1968) was bought, having been shown in Europe in 1972, by the wife of the last shah of Iran.
Trafficking in humans is the third most lucrative crime in South Africa next to drugs and weapons, a statement ahead of a conference said on Friday. At least 500 organised gangs are involved, and researchers have found that trafficking has brought children into prostitution and debt bondage.
The most hated man in Belgium, Marc Dutroux, was finally convicted on Thursday of a series of child rapes and murders that horrified the world. But the outcome of the 15-week trial did not prove the existence of a wider paedophile network. Dutroux was found guilty of kidnapping, raping and imprisoning six girls as well as murdering two of them and a male accomplice he had fallen out with.
The ridiculous concept of ”quiet diplomacy” has been our government’s response to the political catastrophe that is Zimbabwe. It’s been obvious that the ANC is not only quite content to let the Mugabe oligarchy continue with its brutality and its devastation, it often openly endorses it. It isn’t at all surprising, therefore, that in one of its latest moves, the ANC shows it is set upon becoming another Zanu-PF.
A call by South Africa’s chief land commissioner for more post-settlement aid to land reform beneficiaries has been welcomed. The lack of sufficient post-transfer support for beneficiaries of land redistribution in South Africa could derail the country’s land reform programme, analysts have said.
Four new vessels to protect marine resources will be named after Sarah Baartman and three other South African women icons, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said on Friday. ”This vessel will put us right at the top of fisheries protection capacity in the world. We cannot wait to get her operational,” said director-general Horst Kleinschmidt.
East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) has proposed closing its underground mining activities over 10 months as they are economically unviable, the company announced on Friday. ERPM said in a statement that phasing out the operations, and reducing its employees, was imperative to allow for its ”surface re-treatment operations to grow”.
About 1,4-millions Kenyans are short of food, especially in regions affected by prolonged drought, and will require about 85 000 to 90 000 tonnes of aid rations for six months beginning in August, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday.
Every year around 30 000 children are born with HIV/Aids in Mozambique. More than 50% of them die within the first year and the rest usually do not survive their second year. But hope is in sight for Mozambique’s HIV-afflicted children in the form of a new day clinic.