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/ 30 January 2008
An asteroid that exploded over Siberia a century ago, leaving 2 072 square kilometres of scorched or blown down trees, was not nearly as large as previously thought, suggesting a greater danger for Earth. The asteroid that destroyed the forest at Tunguska had a blast force equivalent to one-quarter to one-third of the 10- to 20-megaton range.
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/ 30 January 2008
What Natasha does on the bed in the dingy room with flaking orange paint so shames her she cannot bring herself to use the word. She calls it ”so and so” and sells it here from midday to midnight, six days a week. On a very good day she makes
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/ 30 January 2008
South African mining companies were set to resume production this week after power failures brought the industry to a halt last Friday. Anglogold Ashanti said it expected all its mines would be in full production by the end of the week. Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said: ”All our mines are busy mobilising as the power flow is being restored.”
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/ 30 January 2008
Venezuelan police swooped down on an ambulance used by robbers escaping a bank siege on Tuesday, arresting all four men and freeing a group of captives to end a two-day hostage stand-off. More than 50 people were held captive before the assailants negotiated an escape plan earlier on Tuesday.
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/ 30 January 2008
Murder and mystery in the time of Henry VIII, writes Shaun de Waal.
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/ 30 January 2008
An environmental reporter’s bookshelf is always lined with new books about the Earth, its creatures and humankind’s increasing footprint. Yolandi Groenewald reflects on the latest tomes.
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/ 30 January 2008
David Smith reviews David Robbins’s <i>On the Bridge of Goodbye</i>, which chronicles the sad state of the San throughout Southern Africa.
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/ 30 January 2008
On the top floor of the Yansha Friendship Shopping Centre in Beijing, Huang Kuoshan and 49 of his colleagues are waiting to be sworn in to the Beijing Workers’ Civilisation Cheerleading Squad. With the Beijing Olympic venues all but ready and the -billion upgrade of the city’s infrastructure nearing completion, it is part of a drive by city authorities to ensure bad manners do not mar the August 8 to 24 Games.
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/ 30 January 2008
At 12, brown-eyed Neema Laizer persuaded her elementary school teacher to accept one litre of milk each morning instead of money because her father refused to pay for a girl to be educated. At 13, her father selected a 30-year-old stranger to be her husband. The next day, she was supposed to drop out of school and begin a new life as a housewife, a common fate for young Maasai girls in Tanzania.
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