Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5 000 of the world’s rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China. The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong.
Surrounded by alpine mea-dows and snowcapped peaks, the town of Punakha in central Bhutan bears witness to the difficulty of taking a Buddhist Himalayan monarchy into the 21st century. Inside the 17th-century Tibetan dzong, topped with pagoda-like golden roofs, are 172 civil servants running the affairs of thousands of villagers.
After two weeks of fierce debate and legal wrangling about the identity and actions of the anonymous blogger who published graphic descriptions of the sex he allegedly had with South African celebrities while working as a male prostitute, the blog has come to a sudden end.
Zimbabwe’s remaining foreign investors, who have chosen to ride out the world’s fastest economic decline, could see their patience rewarded with the seizure of at least half their assets if radicals in President Robert Mugabe’s government have their way. Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana is set to push a new law through Parliament whose ”various measures will accelerate the implementation of the indigenisation”.
Sasol’s coal-to-liquid technology is making headlines from Johannesburg to Beijing and New York. It has scored big with the coal industry as a way for coal-rich countries such as the United States, China and South Africa to reduce their dependency on imported fuel from hotspots such as the Middle East and Nigeria.
All is emptiness, according to practitioners of Zen Buddhism, and you don’t need to read many news stories about the hotel heiress and inexplicable celebrity Paris Hilton before conceding that they’ve probably got a point. Now, though, as Hilton prepares for a 45-day jail sentence, she has been photographed holding a copy of the bestselling book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
Debate on how to strengthen the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), occasioned by its 10th anniversary, will not achieve the desired outcome if led by critics who are distanced from the institution. This includes the press. Earlier this year, NCOP chairperson Mninwa Mahlangu remarked that in general, the media had scant knowledge of the council.
As many consumers of traditional news media, especially in the developed world, have moved to the internet to keep up to date, so another exodus has started: from the web to other digital media, especially cellphones. This was the message at a precursor on Sunday to the World Editors Forum and World Newspaper Congress running until June 6.
The government warned striking health workers to return to work on Monday or face being fired while soldiers staffed hospitals and private ambulance services moved seriously-ill babies to private facilities. ”If they are not at their workplace [by Monday], then we will be instituting a process of terminating their services,” said national director general of health Thamsanqa Dennis Mseleku.
Lebanese troops directed artillery and tank barrages at al-Qaeda-inspired militants dug in at a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, the third day of an assault to crush the gunmen. After 12 days of sporadic shelling, the army on Friday attacked Fatah al-Islam positions with the declared aim of wiping out the militants.