The head of China’s environmental agency has blamed the rising number of riots, and demonstrations across the country on public anger at pollution. Zhou Shengxian called for a "struggle" against polluters, and said the public refused to accept the increasing degradation of the environment.
Pieter Hugo’s new exhibition explores the politics of economic division, writes Monique Pelser.
Matthew Krouse reviews Michael Meyersfeld’s exhibition <i>Twelve Naked Men</i>.
When Gunter Grass revealed he had served with the Waffen-SS, the German press reacted with outrage. But many people have since thanked him, writes James Meek.
In a quiz, which its purveyors sell as ”a quiz for people who know everything”, contestants are asked to name the one spectator sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. Lo and behold, the answer is not local football.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s plane was fired on as it took off on Friday from a military airfield in Rawalpindi, an intelligence officer said, contradicting official denials. Musharraf’s plane arrived safely in the south-western town of Turbat, where the president visited flood victims, and the military denied there had been any attack.
Gunmen who kidnapped a three-year-old British girl in southern Nigeria said they would kill her unless her father takes her place, the girl’s mother told the BBC on Friday. ”They say I can bring my husband to swap with the baby,” Oluchi Hill, a Nigerian national, told the British broadcaster.
Power utility Eskom declared a dispute early on Friday with the three unions negotiating for increased wages. The company and Solidarity, the National Union of Mineworkers and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa had hoped to conclude negotiations in the meeting that went past midnight on Thursday night.
The JSE was lacklustre on Friday, still following overseas markets. The rand was a tad softer at midday, which helped give a slight boost to the market. Traders said there was buying interest in metals counters, especially BHP Billiton shares, as well as banks.
Ask Scotland’s David Coulthard about his first British Grand Prix at Silverstone and his brow flickers slightly with exasperation. He had a spectacular 272km/h spin at Bridge corner preparing for the 1994 race, but that was topped for embarrassment when he twice stalled his Williams-Renault on the grid and was moved to the back after failing to get away at the start of the second formation lap.