Every spring, the cranes in the Arctic port of Dudinka are shifted several hundred metres away from the banks of the Yenisei River — with good reason. The river rises 8m when it thaws, tossing chunks of ice into anything blocking its path. Annual repairs cost more than -million.
Politicians are lost deep in cyberspace, struggling to reach a new generation of tech-savvy voters through blogs, social networking sites and video-sharing. In the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama used their websites to launch their 2008 presidential campaigns.
Giant tortoises doze in the shade as rare lizards slip under bushes and endangered birds chatter in the sunlit trees overhead. On a small wooded island off southern Mauritius, environmentalists are trying to turn back time to an era before humans ever set foot on the volcanic Indian Ocean archipelago.
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South Africa outclassed England to take their place in the World Cup semifinals after a nine-wicket victory on Tuesday. The defeat ended England’s hopes of making the cut and South Africa join Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the semifinals.
Eighteen gold miners have been confirmed dead and another 30 are still trapped one day after an illegal mine collapsed in western Ghana, police said on Tuesday. Attempts to rescue the 30 men still trapped in an abandoned mineshaft are being hampered by a lack of earth-moving equipment, they said.
A meningitis outbreak that has swept across south Sudan since the start of the year has killed 661 people, while dozens more have died from measles and cholera, a report said on Tuesday. More than 11 000 people have contracted meningitis since the start of 2007.
The severed head of a chihuahua dog was discovered inside a parcel at the Kwaggasrand Postnet, west of Pretoria, on Tuesday afternoon, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said. The parcel containing the head of the six-year-old dog was addressed to somebody in Springs.
Africa should act fast in finding ways to deal with the effects of climate change, a panel of experts said on Tuesday in Johannesburg. Methods to preserve water should top the list, panel member Pauline Dube said. ”If we don’t take steps fast to preserve water, we are headed for a crisis.”
The gunman who killed 32 people and then himself at Virginia Tech university on Monday was identified by police on Tuesday as Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean studying at the university. Police said Cho (23) was studying English literature. They gave no motive for the shooting rampage, the worst in United States history.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday the withdrawal of ministers loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has not weakened his government and he will name technocrats to replace them soon. In the biggest Cabinet shake-up since al-Maliki took office a year ago, six Sadrist ministers pulled out of the government on Monday.