Six hours before she was executed, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote to her brother-in-law, Henry III of France: "As for my son, I commend him to you in so far as he deserves, for I cannot answer for him." The year was 1587. On December 30 last year a conclave of feudal potentates gathered in the home of the slain Benazir Bhutto to hear her last will and testament being read out and its contents subsequently announced to the world media.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul made a typically patient half-century to anchor a shaky West Indian innings on the first day of the second Test against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday. The West Indies, leading the three-match series 1-0, were 240-8 at the close, with Chanderpaul unbeaten on 64. Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels (51) put on 106 for the fourth wicket.
The four people killed in a light aircraft crash in the Swartberg Mountains on Tuesday have been identified by relatives, Western Cape police said on Wednesday. The plane that was en route to Pretoria from Mossel bay was piloted by 51-year-old Phillip Ginsberg from Pretoria.
Talks between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe’s opposition are deadlocked because the ruling party is refusing to implement a new transitional constitution, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed on Wednesday. ”Mugabe and Zanu-PF want a false election,” Tsvangirai said. ”We are deadlocked on key issues.”
Patients were evacuated on Wednesday as a renowned cancer hospital in London was ravaged by a major fire that destroyed a large part of its roof, emergency services and witnesses said. No casualties were reported at the Royal Marsden Hospital in west London after dozens of ambulances and firefighters rushed to tackle the blaze in the plush Chelsea district.
Chilean military vehicles were en route on Wednesday to rescue 53 people trapped in a wilderness park after one of the country’s largest volcanoes erupted, spewing ash and molten lava. There were no reports of injuries or damage, but dozens of tourists were evacuated from the base of the volcano.
Pakistan’s general election has been delayed until February 18 because of unrest sparked by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the chief election commissioner announced on Wednesday. ”In the light of the circumstances, the new date for general elections is February 18 2008 instead of January 8,” chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq said.
Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Wednesday to resolve the crisis in Kenya, where post-election violence has threatened to escalate into tribal war, with tens of thousands displaced and hundreds murdered. The dispute over last week’s presidential ballot has triggered Kenya’s worst urban unrest in 25 years.
Two plane crashes were averted on New Year’s Day as pilots made emergency landings at Wonderboom Airport, Pretoria authorities said on Wednesday. In the first incident, at about 11am, the pilot of a light aircraft had to crash land when one of the plane’s wheels could not unfold.
The Tanzanian high commissioner to South Africa — who was beaten unconscious last week by robbers — remained sedated and breathing with the help of a ventilator in the Pretoria East Hospital’s intensive-care unit (ICU), doctors said on Wednesday.