For the past few months, I’ve been woken in the half-light just before dawn by the noise of crazed laughter coming from the park behind our house. To begin with, it was hard to be sure that it was human laughter and not just the cackle of wild dogs, but later I started seeing people walking home at about 6.30am, clapping their hands and laughing triumphantly to themselves.
More than 150 people died, including all the crew, when a Russian Airbus A-310 with 200 people on board crashed early on Sunday while landing at Irkutsk airport in Siberia. The Airbus went off the runway while landing and hit a concrete wall before catching fire. The plane’s cabin was wrecked and the passengers had to be evacuated from the rear of the craft, rescuers said.
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Fireworks thundered and flashbulbs popped all around the darkened stadium, illuminating the German players’ brilliant white shirts and the thousands of flags that waved in their honour. Fans screamed and sang for an hour afterward, savouring the lingering moments as hosts of the World Cup. And that was after the consolation game.
The National Prosecuting Authority, also known as the Scorpions, says it has no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of South African President Thabo Mbeki in the arms deal. However, the investigative unit has information linking him to a French defence company implicated in irregularities related to the controversial deal. When Mbeki was deputy president in 1998, he allegedly met executives of Thomson-CSF in Paris.
We reached the mountain top in the Malutis as it began to snow. The icy wind bit into our cheeks. The weather was closing in fast.
Zimbabwe police have banned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from addressing a rally in a major town over fears he is mobilising support for anti-government protests. Tsvangirai’s main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has warned President Robert Mugabe to brace for wave of ”peaceful democratic resistance” against his 26-year rule if he continues to resist political reforms.
Israeli forces pushed through Gaza’s key eastern commercial crossings before dawn on Saturday, killing at least four Palestinians, witnesses and security sources said. Dozens of tanks passed through the Karni and Nahal Oz crossings at the eastern edge of the narrow coastal strip and advanced around one kilometre to neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Gaza City.
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The first World Cup to be hosted in Africa will provide an unparalleled business opportunity in four years time, organisers of South Africa 2010 said in Berlin at a presentation of their wares. Up to five million tourists are expected to flood into South Africa for the month-long jamboree, and the government has committed a R375-billion development package to the project.
It turned out to be the big gamble that paid off as Dick Muir’s decision to field a completely new look Sharks side — he now has two teams of equal strength at his disposal — was vindicated with a 34-16 triumph over the Pumas in their Absa Currie Cup rugby match in Durban on Friday night.
Intel’s attempt to stanch the loss of market share to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), its smaller rival in the computer microprocessor business, appears to be working and may allow it to gain lost ground over the next six months. AMD on Thursday warned second-quarter revenue would be about .22-billion, or about 9% below the previous period.