The extent of the deterioration in United States-Saudi relations was exposed for the first time on Friday when Washington accused Riyadh of working to undermine the Iraqi government. The Bush administration warned Saudi Arabia, until this year one of its closest allies, to stop undermining the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
Close to a school playing field on the edge of Nayagarh, a small town in eastern India, is an innocuous damp circular patch covered with what appears to be sticks and stones. A closer look reveals that the debris is shards of tiny skulls and bones, all that remains of more than 40 female foetuses.
Richard Branson’s plans to run the first commercial space-flight service were thrown into disarray on Friday after an explosion during a test of the rocket’s propulsion system left three workers dead and three seriously wounded with shrapnel injuries and burns. Witnesses said the explosion was accompanied by a blast that sounded like a bomb.
A Bellville medical doctor who refused to pay ”excessive” legal fees on Friday won the first round of his Cape High Court battle against his own lawyers. In court papers, Dr Ben Broens said he requested a detailed account after being billed R204 135 by his divorce lawyers, advocate Andre Ferreira and attorney Johannes Brink.
Eight community halls have been opened for people forced out of their homes by flood waters after a massive cold front brought heavy rain to Cape Town and surrounding areas on Thursday night. About 15 000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in the Cape peninsula, reports said on Saturday.
Flowers for Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s wife were wrongfully bought from the department’s budget, a preliminary investigation into a newspaper’s allegations of corruption has found. On other allegations in the report, published on Friday, the investigation did not find wrongdoing on the part of the minister.
The death rate among newborn babies at East London’s main public hospital does not differ significantly from the national norm, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. In his weekly newsletter, he said ”neonatal mortality at Frere Hospital is not significantly different from the national incidence of such mortality”.
A court action opposing the construction of the new Green Point Stadium for the 2010 Soccer World Cup was postponed to an unspecified date by the Cape High Court on Friday. The action was brought by an environmental group, the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association.
They’re doing it in bed, in the bath and in the back of cars. America’s CrackBerry addiction has got worse. A survey by AOL and Opinion Research of 4 025 Americans over the age of 13 found that almost six out of 10 used their mobile email gadgets in bed.
Robert Mugabe’s former information chief says in an interview published on Saturday that the Zimbabwean president’s inner circle is afraid to get rid of him, despite current economic and political woes. Jonathan Moyo told the Financial Times in London there is little chance of Mugabe being overthrown or replaced.