Tropical Storm Barbara lashed coffee- and sugar-growing regions near the Pacific coasts of Guatemala and Mexico with wind and rain on Saturday, toppling palm huts but causing no reported injuries. Barbara made landfall shortly after dawn on Saturday carrying sustained winds of 80km/h.
People eat more when they are glued to the television, and the more entertaining the programme, the more they eat. It seems that distracted brains do not notice what the mouth is doing, said Dr Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago
France coach Bernard Laporte was full of praise for his young team despite their comprehensive 42-11 loss to New Zealand in the first Test at Eden Park on Saturday. The odds were heavily stacked against the French after they had to field an under-strength team because most of their senior players stayed home.
A woman was critically injured when she plunged more that 15m down a mountain at a resort in Potchefstroom on Saturday. ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said the woman was climbing up the Vredefort Chimney at the Thabelo Thabong Mountain Resort with other climbers at 9.30am when she fell.
Nearly 60 journalists have been murdered in recent months, and prosecutions of journalists for ”treason” and ”extremism” are on the rise, according to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The annual review of press freedom by the Paris-based WAN painted a grim picture of attacks, imprisonment and murder.
Zimbabwe is counting its losses as construction workers trek in droves to neighbouring South Africa to join the boom spawned by the 2010 World Cup. With three years to go before the World Cup finals, Zimbabwean architects, artisans and engineers are leaving the country for better-paying jobs south of the border.
United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates declined to comment on Sunday about Friday’s reported US naval strike on targets in Somalia, saying it was possibly an ongoing operation. ”I think that’s possibly an ongoing operation and I’m not going to talk about it,” Gates told a news briefing on the sidelines of an Asian security conference.
A strong earthquake hit a tea-making city in south-west China on Sunday, killing at least two people, injuring 200, causing houses to collapse and damaging roads, Xinhua news agency and a local official said. The quake shook the city of Pu’er and the surrounding area in mountainous Yunnan province in the early morning when most people were asleep.
Diamonds may be forever, but it turns out that a gay boy is actually a girl’s best friend, according to a new book that is the first definitive guide to the "fag hag". That many straight women set great store by gay male friends won’t surprise fans who’ve watched Will and Grace sharing the secrets of their souls.
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