No image available
/ 21 October 2007
United States air strikes killed at least 13 people and wounded 52 early on Sunday in the north-eastern Baghdad district of Sadr city, a stronghold for Shi’ite militants, police sources said. The US military said it was ”targeting criminals believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of coalition soldiers in November 2006 and May 2007”.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
A month after the United States Supreme Court agreed to wade into the lethal injection debate, executions are effectively on hold across the nation as courts and politicians sit tight. On September 25, the country’s highest court agreed to examine whether lethal injections are ”cruel and unusual” punishment.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
![]()
France’s first hosting of rugby’s World Cup will leave mixed emotions on the home front. The six-week long tournament was superbly organised, the grounds were packed, and there was colour and drama aplenty. But the script that had the French hosts taking on the mighty All Blacks in the final in Paris failed to materialise.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, takes old cars and motorbikes to pieces in the back yard at home and builds his own helicopters from the parts. ”It took me eight months to build this one,” he said, sweat pouring from his forehead.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
China’s push into Africa is prompting growing interest over Beijing’s motives in the world’s poorest continent, with opinion divided over who stands to benefit most. Speaking at the launch this week of a China research programme run by the Johannesburg-based South African Institute of International Affairs, its chief academic said China had ”changed the game of development”.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
Poles began voting on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election that could cost the ruling Kaczynski twins their full grip on government in the European Union’s biggest former communist country. Opinion polls suggest a centre-right opposition party might do best in the vote.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
Sudanese refugee Ajang Deng was riding his bike home when a group of white men attacked him with a beer bottle in the latest in a spate of racist attacks that could play a role in Australia’s looming election. The attacks followed a controversial statement by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, who last month blamed African refugees for gang violence.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
![]()
Britain’s newspapers on Sunday hailed the bravery and spirit of England’s defeated World Cup side, praising South Africa for their win but mulling over a controversial refereeing decision. For those who managed to squeeze match reports into their first editions, newspapers said South Africa were worthy winners in the game’s showpiece.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first looming Cabinet crisis has been triggered neither by the announcement of his own divorce nor by the transport paralysis caused by the past week’s public servants’ strikes. It comes down to rugby.
No image available
/ 21 October 2007
A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the country’s soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Nufar Yishai-Karin, a clinical psychologist at the Hebrew University, interviewed 21 Israeli soldiers and heard confessions of frequent brutal assaults against Palestinians.