Militant environmentalists hurled stinging acid for more than an hour onto a Japanese whaling ship off Antarctica on Monday, hurting three crew members, officials said. Both Japan and Australia, the leading opponent of whaling, condemned the latest attack by the Sea Shepherd group.
Pakistani tribesmen on Monday buried the last of the 43 people killed in a suicide bomb attack at a meeting of tribal elders discussing how to tackle al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Russia’s next president Dmitry Medvedev pledged to uphold Vladimir Putin’s policies on Monday after a big election win that critics said was stage-managed to let the outgoing Kremlin leader keep his grip on power. Medvedev (42) who will be the youngest Russian leader since Tsar Nicholas II when he is sworn in on May 7, has asked former KGB spy Putin to be his prime minister.
Robert Mugabe’s iron grip on his ruling Zanu-PF party is being broken ahead of this month’s presidential election as senior party figures throw their weight behind an unprecedented challenge to Zimbabwe’s president from his former finance minister, Simba Makoni.
Erai Maggi does not look like a villain who is destroying the planet; nor does he look like a hero who is saving the world’s poor. Wearing jeans and work boots, he can be found on a typical day driving a battered Fiat car on one of his farms south of the Amazon rainforest.
Israel was facing widespread international condemnation on Sunday for its onslaught in Gaza, as the United Nations and European Union demanded an end to a ”disproportionate” response to Palestinian rocket attacks, which were also denounced.
The South African Communist Party has asked the South African Police Service to finalise its investigation into a donation scandal after an internal audit cleared their secretary general Blade Nzimande. The SACP audit was set up to investigate the whereabouts of R500 000 donated to the party by controversial businessman Charles Modise.
Not many former chief executives stay on at their old haunts once a successor is appointed and they’re no longer on the board. Thulani Gcabashe, however, can still be found in the corridors of Eskom’s cavernous Megawatt Park — even though he no longer works at the utility.
Every day, well-heeled citizens clatter in and out of the Rishengchang, China’s first bank. But the ledgers are dusty and unused; the visitors are not customers but tourists. The most notable visitor to the museum, President Hu Jintao, may well recall the lesson in hubris as he stares at the biggest economic challenge that he has faced to date.
It is difficult to imagine how a school pledge recited every morning can accomplish much. But this might be the opportunity to examine the fundamental values of South Africans and the role of religion in our schools. Some have rejected the pledge outright, while others would modify it, writes Abdulkader Tayob.