Israel widened its assault on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night by shelling the north of the territory and dropping leaflets warning residents of a pending attack by tanks and troops, as the government seized on a crisis over an abducted soldier to take on Palestinian armed groups.
As the <i>2006 Small-Arms Survey</i> was being circulated at the United Nations on Monday, Secretary General Kofi Annan accepted a photo petition from one million people worldwide calling for tougher controls over the global arms trade. The simultaneous circulation of the survey, by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, and the Million Faces Petition was not a coincidence.
A report by Willie Hofmeyr, the Eliot Ness of the Highveld, has revealed that the paying of bribes is commonplace. Of the respondents polled, 73% had paid bribes to avoid paying for water and electricity; 72% for having telephones installed; 65% for customs avoidance; and 55% for getting a driver’s licence. Lemmer is impressed by his compatriots’ chutzpah.
Civil right groups on Thursday hailed a Supreme Court decision on military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay as a major victory for the rule of law and a stern rebuke to United States President George Bush. ”This decision moves us one step closer to stopping the abuse of power that has become the hallmark of this White House,” said Anthony Romero.
Ghana crashed out of the World Cup in Germany in their maiden appearance much earlier than their vociferous football fans and citizens had wished.The 3-0 loss to mighty Brazil, the defending champions, in the second round on Tuesday ended their World Cup dreams and broke hundreds of thousands of hearts.
From bras and baby suits equipped with monitors to tough suits to protect sportspeople and adventurers from the hazards of life on earth, space technology is boldly pushing back fashion frontiers. ”The space programme has over the years provided a catalyst for a lot of the progress we are seeing today in textiles,” says David Raitt, promotions officer with the European Space Agency.
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An attempt to refloat the stranded Safmarine Agulhas at East London has been postponed, the salvors said on Wednesday. Salvors started putting cables in place for the reflotation on Wednesday afternoon. However, they put off the planned reflotation to ensure the connections were made in daylight.
Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams cruised through to the Wimbledon second round on Wednesday with such ease that their argument for equal prize money was left looking decidedly unconvincing. Russian pin-up Sharapova, the 2004 champion, took only 51 minutes to see off Israeli veteran Anna Smashnova 6-2, 6-0.
An attempt to set a new land-speed record at Verneukpan in the Northern Cape ended tragically after an accident during a test run on Tuesday, a local newspaper reported. Pretoria racing driver Johan Jacobs (40) died in the accident when his jet-propulsion vehicle turned sideways at a speed of about 500kph and started rolling, the Volksblad reports.