Sleeping feels like a sin for an exhausted Ryu Haeng-sik who looks after his two young daughters in suburban Seoul, waiting for word on his wife held by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. ”It feels like my heart is being scorched. It’s unbelievable how sinful I feel for just eating and sleeping,” Ryu said in an interview.
Russian rugby has come a long way since the Stalinist dark days when the former Soviet dictator banned it for being too bourgeois. Now with a French coach in charge and with a marketing guru in place, the Russian federation is aiming to qualify for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.
The United Nations Security Council reached broad agreement on a draft resolution to authorise up to 26Â 000 troops and police for Sudan’s Darfur region, with a vote anticipated this week. Britain and France distributed a fourth revised text late on Monday to be sent to governments of the 15 council members.
Growth in demand for credit by South Africa’s private sector quickened to 24,92% year-on-year in June, data showed on Tuesday, hardening the case for another interest rate increase next month. Analysts had expected a new law clamping down on credit lending that came into force in June to have bolstered the central bank’s monetary tightening efforts.
Australian scientists said on Tuesday they had isolated the substance that gives red wine its peppery aroma, allowing them to modulate the bouquet of one of the country’s most popular varieties. The Australian Wine Research Institute said its scientists spent five years trying to find out what gave Shiraz wine its destinctive black pepper fragrance.
United States President Bush on Monday lavished praise on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at their first summit together, saying he was a man of principle who understood the ideological war against terrorism. But over two days of talks held at Camp David, Brown retained his right to withdraw British troops from Iraq more quickly than the Americans.
The father of two boys who were killed in the 1993 Mthatha raid ordered by FW de Klerk wants the former president to be prosecuted. The twin boys of Sigqibo Mpendulo were shot in their sleep at their home which De Klerk said had been confirmed a Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) safe house.
A record-breaking 180 African immigrants reached the Canary Islands in a single ocean-going canoe on Monday as new super-sized vessels began to be used in the perilous journey from Africa’s Atlantic coast. The 180 sub-Saharan Africans were picked up by a Spanish maritime rescue vessel off the island of Tenerife.
Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, said on Monday it would be a ”worthy competitor” for News Corp if Rupert Murdoch’s company succeeded in buying the Wall Street Journal. It said it was exploring TV tie-ups to strengthen its position.
The second South Korean hostage shot dead by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan was identified on Tuesday as Shim Sung-min (29) a former IT firm employee who did volunteer work to help the poor. Afghan authorities recovered his blood-stained body dumped south-west of Kabul.