Russian President Vladimir Putin began a public relations offensive on Thursday before he chairs a summit of the G8 countries in St Petersburg next weekend with a two-hour webcast in which he told United States President George Bush that they were friends and 10 years of conflict in Chechnya had been ”worth it”.
Conservative candidate Felipe Calderón has won the final official count of Mexico’s presidential poll by a razor-thin margin but his main rival, the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has vowed to contest the result. With 99,56% of the vote counted, Calderón had 35,82%, López Obrador 35,37% with three other candidates sharing the remainder.
Egyptian MPs are demanding cuts in a popular new film, claiming it defames their country with its gritty portrayal of corrupt politicians, police brutality, terrorism and homosexuality. The Yacoubian Building — the most expensive film ever produced in Egypt — has been breaking box office records since its release a fortnight ago.
China and India on Thursday bridged decades of distrust and the world’s highest mountain range by opening a direct trade link along a winding road that runs between the planet’s two most populous countries. The two nations’ representatives, who broke bread and ate sweets together, declared the customs post open in the early morning.
The JSE was in the black at midday on Friday, lifted by resources, which were also firmer in London. The JSE’s gains came despite the firmer rand. By noon, the all-share index was up 0,11%. Resources added 0,79%, the gold-mining index was up 0,48%, while the platinum-mining index advanced 1,24%.
One of the many and varied tragedies about the turbulent Saturday night we all endured is that we will now never know what it would feel like to walk down Sven-Goran Eriksson Street. Had the outgoing England manager persuaded football to come home as he had promised he would, the relevant municipal authorities may well have granted him this honour.
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A hearty rendition of O Sole Mio was booming out in Italy’s dressing room when Prime Minister Romano Prodi came to congratulate the team on beating Germany. ”Even he joined in,” Fabio Cannavaro said. ”It was great.” For Cannavaro, hearing that Neapolitan ditty being sung joyously was particularly special.
Springbok coach Jake White is free to pursue other job offers because the president’s council of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) cannot plan more than 18 months in advance. Familiarity breeds contempt, it would seem, for Saru is now of the opinion that White is lucky to have a job in the first place. And how dare he seek improved terms?
”Sometimes I think I might be the oldest 24-year-old in the world,” Justine Henin-Hardenne says with a faint smile. In the midst of explaining how she survived terrible adversity to emerge as the most iron-willed competitor in women’s tennis, Henin-Hardenne seems to feel the trauma of her past with renewed intensity.
Authorities released nearly 1 000 pages of new documents from the Columbine High School massacre, including step-by-step plans written by the two killers as they gleefully plotted the deadliest school shooting in United States history.