At least 48 people have been killed in rainstorms in southern and eastern China over the last five days, with 37 succumbing to lightning strikes, state media reported on Tuesday. Twelve people remain missing following the storms, which drenched areas, including the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Xinhua news agency said.
The White Stripes get their hands dirty on their latest release, writes Lloyd Gedye
The upcoming violent video game Manhunt II faces an uncertain future after being banned by at least two countries and facing a ratings controversy in the United States. But the game’s publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software, said it is determined to bring the title to market.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in northern England on Tuesday as officials warned a dam could collapse following severe flooding that has killed three people. A 68-year-old man and a teenager died in Sheffield and another man, in his 20s, was killed in Hull as torrential rain brought chaos to much of England and Wales.
The Cape High Court has ordered the Western Cape government to ensure that health services in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha area are fully reinstated with immediate effect. Handing down judgement in an application for the reinstatement of 41 sacked Khayelitsha health workers on Tuesday, Judge Siraj Desai said the court was not the right forum to rule on their dismissal.
A cyclone hit the coast of Pakistan on Tuesday, dumping torrential rain over a thinly populated region days after about 230 people were killed when a storm lashed the country’s biggest city, Karachi. Authorities in Pakistan and neighbouring India have evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas after weekend storms and flooding killed nearly 400 people.
Get your fingers ready. Apple’s iPhone, which launches on June 29, is leading a new wave of gadgets using touch-sensitive screens that react to taps, swishes or flicks of a finger. The improvements promise to be slicker and more intuitive than the rough stomp of finger presses and stylus-pointing required by many of today’s devices.
Google says in a court filing that it is pressing for an extension to the United States Justice Department’s oversight of Microsoft’s business practices, most of which is set to expire in November. Over the past year, Google has complained to state and federal regulators about Microsoft’s ”Instant Search” program.
Apple’s founder and saviour Steve Jobs has revolutionised culture, up-ended the music world and set his sites unabashedly on the ”smart phone” industry. With the United States launch of iPhones on June 29, Jobs aims to transform the ”smart phone” industry in ways that iPods did to music and Macintosh computers did to lifestyles.
Unruly taxi drivers who think they are immune to road rules and terrorise passengers by forcing them to commute in their vehicles should be dealt with, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Ann Barnes, the party’s spokesperson for traffic in Johannesburg, said authorities had to start ”confiscating taxis and charging drivers”.