Smog is menacing Japanese cities for the first time in 30 years and cropping up in rural areas for the first time ever, alarming the government and prompting experts to point the finger at neighbouring China. Warnings for high levels of hazardous smog have been issued in a record 28 prefectures so far this year.
Hundreds of snakes, forced out of their pits by flood waters, have entered villagers’ homes in eastern India, creating panic and adding to the torment caused by monsoon flooding, officials said on Friday. About 1Â 800 people have been killed — scores of them due to snake bites — since July when swollen rivers burst their banks.
An international human rights group has accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of promoting ”state homophobia” in Uganda and urged the repeal of a colonial-era law against sodomy. Human Rights Watch’s attack added to a fierce social debate in the East African nation, where the gay community has been increasingly vocal in demanding rights.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden has told his World Cup aspirants to prepare for the most physically taxing match of their careers when they square up to the Springboks at Murrayfield on Saturday in the final tournament warm-up outing for both sides. The encounter is billed as a ”friendly”, however Hadden laughed off the notion that the teams would merely be going through the motions.
Two bogus policemen wearing police-issue bullet-proof vests and with toy guns in their holsters were arrested in Kempton Park on the East Rand on Friday, police said. Captain Jethro Mtshali said members of the Kempton Park crime-prevention unit were on patrol when they spotted two men running near the Kemstar Mall at about 2am.
Somali government security forces killed seven insurgents and lost of one their own in intense overnight clashes in the capital, Mogadishu, police said on Friday. ”The insurgents launched two separate attacks on our security forces and there were heavy exchanges of gunfire,” police spokesperson Abduwahid Mohamed said.
European power companies are making billions of euros in excess profits in the European Union’s battle to beat global warming by cutting emissions of carbon gases, and consumers are paying for it, economists say. The electricity generators are given, free of charge, permits to emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, but are then charging consumers.
Zimbabwe central bank chief Gideon Gono was recently refused entry into Britain after the government in London said his visit could lead to public protests, state media reported on Friday. Britain accuses Gono of "involvement in corrupt practices that have undermined democracy and the rule of law" in Zimbabwe, the <i>Herald</i> newspaper reported.
Israeli police arrested a woman who stole a pair of Crocs shoes when she returned to the store hours later to exchange them because they did not fit her son, a police spokesperson said on Friday. ”The store clerk identified her from security camera footage and called us,” said Amos Shimoni, police spokesperson in the northern town of Safed.
On the campaign trail or in the debating chamber, there’s just no escaping it. Like the spectre at the feast, the Iraq war is dominating the White House race in a contest in which every word counts. The eight hopefuls chasing the Democratic Party nomination for the 2008 elections to replace President George Bush seem united in their calls to end the unpopular conflict.