South Africa’s conservation areas are facing ”real and urgent” threats, and first world countries must do more to help, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Wednesday. As a result of climate change, the Kruger National Park could experience more intense rainfall interspersed with longer dry spells, he said.
China became the world’s biggest producer of gold last year, overtaking South Africa, which held top spot for 100 years, independent precious-metals consultancy GFMS said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the price of gold was on course to reach a record high of $1 100 an ounce in 2008, the group added in its latest annual <i>Gold Survey</i>.
Federal cybersecurity officials are trying to develop an early-warning system that alerts authorities to incoming computer attacks targeting critical United States infrastructure, says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. His keynote speech on Tuesday at the RSA security conference, however, was light on details.
Hundreds of coffee-obsessed consumers in the United States chimed in moments after Starbucks launched a website asking customers to pitch changes the company should make to revive its struggling US business. And they have kept those thoughts coming, by the thousands.
Yahoo! will begin showing homemade videos on its online photo-sharing site, Flickr, in a long-anticipated move that may be too late to lure most people away from the internet’s dominant video channel, Google’s YouTube. Flickr’s video technology is the latest example of Yahoo! trying to catch up to Google in a crucial battleground.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the leaders of Southern Africa on Wednesday to use their influence to help prevent his country from sliding into chaos following disputed elections. MDC lawyers, meanwhile, were trying to persuade the High Court to order the immediate release of the results of the March 29 presidential election.
Russian generals will soon have a stylish new uniform designed by a top fashion designer, but the question is: Will they fit? More than 30% of the army’s elite officers are overweight and 25% failed a fitness test, army spokesperson Vyacheslav Sedov said on Wednesday.
The change of African National Congress (ANC) leadership should not cause anxiety about stability in the country, as the government would continue to implement its policies, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday. ”The resolutions taken at the ANC conference late last year have guaranteed continuity,” she said.
Iraq on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s iron-fisted regime with the nation still in turmoil, the capital under curfew and a surge of deadly violence in the Shi’ite bastion of Sadr City. Iraqi officials said three mortar rounds slammed into Sadr City, killing at least seven people and wounding 24 others.
Saharan sand dunes stretch to the horizon in Timimoun, an oasis town of red clay where visitors can ride camels with Tuareg nomads and sleep on dunes under the stars. Timimoun should be easy to get to, but it isn’t. It offers few comforts after a long, arduous journey. But those few tourists who make it here value its remoteness.