Fearful of soaring internet addiction and juvenile crime, China has banned the opening of new internet cafés this year. The ban comes as lawmakers at China’s annual session of Parliament, the National People’s Congress, called for stricter regulations to keep teenagers away from internet cafés.
Britain’s ambassador to Ethiopia made an emotional appeal for information about the five Britons snatched from a remote border area on Monday night as efforts to negotiate their safe release were stepped up. Foreign Office officials said that progress was being made in the search for two women and three men who were kidnapped at the end of an adventure tour.
The Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, issued an environmental wake-up call to China on Monday, saying the world’s fastest-expanding economy had to move away from red-hot growth towards a greener, leaner, slower model of development.
Motor-vehicle accidents and incidents of violent crime in South Africa are leaving their mark on people’s lives in many different ways. Apart from the emotional trauma suffered, the long-term effects of physical injuries can also cause major disruptions. Severe injuries or illness could force one to make adjustments or stop work altogether.
United States President George Bush on Monday promised a series of US-financed measures to help Latin America’s poor, in a belated effort to try to combat the growing influence over the continent of the Venezualan President, Hugo Chávez, and other left-wing leaders.
With the exercise boom in full swing, a record number took part in this weekend’s Hong Kong marathon, shrugging off heat, humidity and a soulless course for the good of their health — or was it? With air pollution soaring, questions are being asked about the benefit of exercising here.
They should have got Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa to play Idi Amin in <i>The Last King of Scotland</i>. Shilowa at least has the seductive/menacing looks of the fleshy African power-man that Amin became. Forest Whitaker, looking slightly slimmer than he was when I last saw him on screen, unfortunately still just looks like a fat black man from the Louisiana plantations.
A new initiative to tackle crimes such as house robberies and hijackings was unveiled by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Monday. He told an Interpol conference in Johannesburg the move included the deployment of hundreds more police officers in areas where these crimes were common.
Disgruntled residents of Khutsong township in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, were locked in a meeting with government officials in a bid to resolve their problems on Monday afternoon, the Merafong municipality said. The meeting follows last week’s violent protest by residents, during which some houses belonging to ward councillors were petrol-bombed.
Township areas outside Klerksdorp will be without power on Monday night following the weekend’s freak storm that damaged about 1Â 900 homes. They will also be without water, except for what authorities were scheduled to provide in tankers. And many houses will remain without roofs.