A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7,1 jolted the coastal area of central Japan on Sunday, killing at least one person and injuring around 110, Japanese officials and media said. The focus of the tremor was at a depth of 50km below the seabed off the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300km from Tokyo.
Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, may scrap his plans to delay next year’s presidential elections, his mouthpiece newspaper reported on Saturday, and has partially lifted a ban on political protests in Harare’s volatile townships. But a rally planned for Sunday by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the capital’s Mbare township remained prohibited.
Next week Warren Beatty will turn 70. It is an age when traditionally life should be relaxing, reflective and calm. But it is not panning out that way. Like millions of other elderly Americans, Beatty is not going gentle into that good night. In fact he was recently snapped leaving Los Angeles’ notorious nightclub Hyde, a hot spot usually frequented by such youthful tearaways as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton
Iran defiantly rebuffed international demands on Saturday for the release of 15 seized British naval personnel, claiming that the sailors and marines had confessed to entering its waters in an illegal act of aggression, and were now to be prosecuted in the Iranian capital.
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Matthew Hayden scored the fastest hundred in a World Cup match and defending champion Australia topped Group A with an 83-run win over top-ranked South Africa on Saturday.
Bafana Bafana beat Chad 3-0 in an African Nations Cup qualifying game that was transformed into a desert storm at the dusty Stade Omnisport in N’djamena on Saturday afternoon. Only a succession of missed chances by Sibusiso Zuma prevented Bafana from opening the score before the 32nd minute on a pitch where the ball often bounced erratically.
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions by targeting Tehran’s arms exports, state-owned bank and elite Revolutionary Guards. The new measures are a follow-up to a resolution adopted on December 23 banning trade in sensitive nuclear materials and ballistic missiles.
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A centuries-old game developed in the public schools of Victorian England is facing a challenge almost beyond imagination with the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer at the cricket World Cup. This expected celebration of cricket and carnival in the West Indies has been overshadowed by the news that Woolmer was strangled in his hotel room in Jamaica.
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Pakistan’s cricketers were expected to fly home from the World Cup later on Saturday with police denying rumours that arrests had been made over the murder of their coach Bob Woolmer. Two Pakistani team officials were staying behind in Jamaica when the team departed, primarily to deal with issues surrounding Woolmer, said Jamaica deputy police commissioner Mark Shields.
About 13 Kenyans die of tuberculosis every hour and there is little immediate prospect of improvement, the head of a leading national health organisation said on Saturday which is World Tuberculosis Day. About 117Â 00 cases were diagnosed by 2006, but that was possibly only half of total infections in Kenya,