An image of the Liberty Bell, an icon of American freedom and independence, will adorn the United States Postal Service’s new ”forever stamp”. The stamp, which will carry the word ”Forever” instead of a price, will remain valid for sending a letter, no matter how much postal rates go up in the future.
The renaming of Durban’s Mangosuthu Highway has raised eyebrows and left the Inkatha Freedom Party threatening to march through the city in protest, media reports said on Monday. Also, the decision by the city fathers to rename Point Road after Mahatma Gandhi has generated huge debate within South Africa and India.
Comic-book hero Asterix did his bit for Middle East peace this weekend, when Arab and Hebrew translations of an Asterix album with a Middle Eastern touch were released simultaneously at the Paris book fair. ”Translation opens us up to others, to all peoples,” said Syrian Jamal Shehayeb, who usually translates literary works by Proust or poet Lamartine.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila on Monday defended the use of force to quash what he described as an armed rebellion by militia loyal to former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. "Order had to be restored at any cost," Kabil said after deadly clashes last week in the capital, Kinshasa, which left about 150 dead and 150 seriously wounded.
At least 29 people were killed and 71 reported missing after knife-wielding smugglers forced about 450 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into the sea off Yemen, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday. The incident occurred last Thursday along a remote stretch of coastline.
The dominant clan in Somalia’s chaotic capital, Mogadishu, on Monday freed 18 prisoners captured during fighting with interim government forces. Elders of the Hawiye clan have been in talks with the government and its Ethiopian military allies since about 20 people died last week in the city’s worst bloodshed since a war over the New Year to oust militant Islamists.
South Africa will have an extra incentive to beat Sri Lanka in their World Cup match on Wednesday as victory would allow them to hold on to their number one status and land them a  000 windfall. South Africa would have to secure the top spot in the International Cricket Council one-day rankings by April 1 to receive the cash boost.
Iran said on Monday it was interrogating 15 British sailors it seized last week, claiming they had entered its waters illegally and defying intense international pressure for their release. As the diplomatic row deepened, Britain ambassador Geoffrey Adams held more talks at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran and was assured that the group was "fit and well".
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders for a second day on Monday as Arab states revived a five-year-old peace plan to positive noises from Israel, whose Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said he was willing to join a meeting of Arab leaders.
The government aims to increase the number of engineering graduates and artisans in its race to achieve 6% economic growth by 2010, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday at a briefing on the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition 2007 report.