Nine United States warships carrying 17 000 personnel entered the Persian Gulf on Wednesday in a show of force off Iran’s coast that navy officials said was the largest daytime assembly of ships since the 2003 Iraq war. US Navy officials said Iran had not been notified of plans to sail the ships, which include two aircraft carriers.
Even in the precarious business of soccer coaching, the PSL underwent a whirlwind of changes on Tuesday to match the gusty conditions blowing through much of South Africa. Foremost in causing a flurry was the departure of 42-year-old Gavin Hunt from Moroka Swallows after more than four reasonably successful seasons to replace Bafana Bafana-bound Pitso Mosimane at SuperSport United.
An Indonesian girl has died of bird flu and Vietnam reported on Wednesday its first suspected human infection since late 2005, in a string of cases across Asia when the H5N1 virus is usually less active. The girl’s death brings the number of confirmed human fatalities in Indonesia to 77, the highest in the world.
Rioting has highlighted mounting pressures to change China’s controversial population control policies, observers said on Wednesday, but the government shows no signs of buckling. Security reinforcements had moved into 28 towns in the southern Guangxi region after thousands of residents clashed in recent days with officials enforcing the so-called "one-child" policy.
The government is hunting down the owners of thousands of derelict mines to mitigate a bill of close to R100-billion needed to rehabilitate the abandoned sites. If the government cannot find the owner of an unrehabilitated mine, then the state inherits the obligation to clean up that site.
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Some of its men have not been paid for four months and, with few helicopters or troop carriers, it has to rely on diplomacy to keep the peace, but the beleaguered African Union force in Darfur insists it is still making a difference. The force has paid a high price for its efforts to stem the violence in Darfur, which has killed at least 200Â 000 people.
Public-service unions have not given notice of their intention to strike indefinitely from June 1, the government said on Tuesday. ”We’re preparing for [demonstrations on] May 25, but we haven’t received any formal notice for June 1,” said chief negotiator Kenny Govender.
In the middle of the road into the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, scene of fierce fighting for the past three days, a woman lay shot, her body convulsing, unreachable by the army and Red Cross as snipers continued to fire over her. Inside the devastated camp, residents waited without water or electricity for a ceasefire to come into effect.
Writers will get the name of a restaurant right, but will they have smelled the smells? <b>Marcel Berlins</b> wonders.