Nigerian ransom-seekers kidnapped the 11-year-old son of a state legislator in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, the third child abduction in just over a month, authorities said on Wednesday. Kidnappings for money have become increasingly common in the delta, although children were rarely targeted until recent weeks.
Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was set to decide on Thursday whether to impose emergency rule due to ”external and internal threats”, a government spokesperson said. Official sources said late on Wednesday they believed that a proclamation of a state of emergency was likely following a meeting later on Thursday at the president’s camp outside Islamabad.
Beijing Olympic organisers said on Thursday they were confident that athletes would compete in clean air next year despite revelations that events could be postponed because of pollution. ”We are well aware of the challenges but we are confident that air quality will be good for the Olympics,” Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesperson Sun Weide said.
President Hugo Chávez has launched an intensive tour of South America to shore up Venezuela’s influence over the region and to loosen the grip of Western creditors. The socialist leader promised to buy up to -billion of Argentinian bonds and to help fund a -million gas plant, bolstering his reputation as a benefactor of Buenos Aires’s economic recovery.
South Africa’s Retief Goosen will try to recapture the magic this week at the 89th PGA Championship over the same Southern Hills Country Club course where he won his first Major title in 2001. Goosen, who shared second at this year’s Masters, captured the 2001 US Open by taking an 18-hole play-off with Mark Brooks by two strokes.
Jose Mourinho believes the team spirit he has forged at Chelsea is strong enough to see his side through the injury crisis that threatens to damage their title challenge. Mourinho could be forgiven if he had given up taking a roll call of his remaining fit players in case another one has joined the growing ranks of walking wounded.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund says he is not surprised to hear the baying of wolves at his door after the Premier Soccer League (PSL) champions’ 4-0 defeat against SC Sfaxien in Caf’s Confederation Cup encounter in Tunisia last weekend. ”It’s all part of the game,” said the coach with the Midas touch, who holds the record of guiding four different clubs to the PSL title.
Claims that a Great White shark had been seen off the England’s south-western coast have been exposed as a fake after the holidaymaker who claimed he saw the fearsome creature said it was a sham. Kevin Keeble’s photograph of a menacing-looking fin poking out of the water sparked Jaws mania around the county of Cornwall.
A light aircraft nosedived into a Johannesburg house on Wednesday evening, seriously injuring its pilot and co-pilot, said rescue workers. The Piper Seneca took the roof off the patio of the house in Greenacres Street, Birdhaven, near the Wanderers, at 5.50pm, said Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley.
Mohamed Hussein heard the grenade explode and he froze. He knew what was coming next, because he has been through it before: gunfire coming from every direction as soldiers frantically tried to kill the person who had thrown the weapon. When the shots finally stopped, Hussein saw four bloodied corpses, all of them civilians.