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/ 8 February 2007
Malaysia is to introduce college courses in toilet management as part of a battle against the nation’s notoriously filthy public restrooms, a report said on Thursday. Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Robert Lau said similar efforts had yielded clean toilets in Britain and squeaky-clean Singapore.
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/ 8 February 2007
As Japan frets that solid full-time jobs are becoming scarcer, even the mob is turning to part-timers. A police study out Thursday showed that part-time gangsters outnumbered full-time mobsters for the first time on record, even as overall mob membership went down.
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/ 8 February 2007
Nasa announced a review of the way it screens its staff for psychological problems on Wednesday as it went into damage limitation mode over the arrest of one of its astronauts. Lisa Nowak travelled 1Â 520km carrying a pellet gun in order to confront a colleague whom she suspected of being a rival for the affections of a fellow astronaut.
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/ 8 February 2007
The Presidency could not say on Thursday whether thousands of e-mails detailing South Africans’ experiences of crime had reached President Thabo Mbeki. ”I’ve not seen any of those letters. I’m not even sure whether they’ve arrived,” said spokesperson for the Presidency Mukoni Ratshitanga.
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/ 8 February 2007
A Metrobus driver accused of racially abusing a group of white schoolchildren has claimed his trip was made a ”living hell” by the taunting pupils. This was stated on Wednesday by Metrobus chief executive Bheki Shongwe, who sprang to the defence of a driver who is accused of forcing pupils off a bus in the middle of a busy main road.
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/ 8 February 2007
It was projected to be a golden year for Lebanon and one to beat all records; instead 2006, with its string of crises including a 34-day war, proved a disaster for the tourism sector. From the expected 1,6-million visitors, only 1,06-million travelled to the "Switzerland of the Middle East", down almost 7% on 2005 and a huge 17% on the previous year, according to Tourism Ministry figures.
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/ 8 February 2007
Traditional roses and all other red flowers are in demand at the Aalsmeer flower auction in The Netherlands, one of the world’s biggest, where the approach of Valentine’s Day means sales are soaring. During these busy days Aalsmeer, nicknamed "The Wall Street of Roses", doubles its daily sales to almost 40-million flowers a day.
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/ 8 February 2007
A major computer failure at OR Tambo International airport on Thursday morning led to several delays. Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) spokesperson Solomon Makgale told the Mail & Guardian Online that some flights ”on one or two airlines” had been delayed.
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/ 8 February 2007
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Thursday there was no merit in Australian umpire Darrell Hair’s claim of racial discrimination on the part of cricket’s world governing body and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The sacked Australian umpire on Wednesday filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the ICC and the PCB.
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/ 8 February 2007
Robert ”Willie” Pickton never fidgets in his seat. His hands betray a lifetime of toil and he is almost bald, with long strands of greying hair that seem slicked down with some sort of oil. He is an unremarkable man, thin and of average height, except that he is charged with murdering 26 women.