The Larsemann Hills are a rare stretch of ice-free rock around the Prydz Bay on the eastern shores of Antarctica. But now plans by India to build a year-round scientific research base in the middle of the coastal oasis have dismayed environmentalists and stalled international talks to turn the area into a conservation zone.

As the first ”legally blind” entrant to complete the gruelling Iditarod dog-sled race through the frozen wilds of Alaska, Rachel Scdoris should have had no problems with a 7,8km jog through an Mpumalanga forest harnessed to a single dog. In truth, the run was a piece of cake for the 21-year-old Oregon native.

British soldiers in Afghanistan are engaged in fighting that is more intense and prolonged than any other conflict during the past 50 years, the British commander of all foreign troops in Afghanistan warned on Thursday. Ten British soldiers have been killed in clashes with Taliban fighters and their supporters over the past two months.

The strongest typhoon to strike China for half a century killed at least 111 people, dozens of them villagers who had taken shelter in a concrete house that collapsed. Nearly 150 others were missing, according to figures released on Friday by the state press and a government agency.

The United Nations emergency relief coordinator on Thursday branded Israel and Hezbollah a disgrace for their refusal to stop fighting long enough to allow vital aid to enter southern Lebanon. Jan Egeland said there are 120 000 civilians stranded without necessary supplies in southern Lebanon.

The National Union of Metalworkers has criticised the Congress of South African Trade Union for ignoring issues confronting the country’s working class and waging a war against South Africa’s democratic state instead of ”dismantling the stronghold of white monopoly capital”. The latter charge is a clear reference to Cosatu’s attacks on President Thabo Mbeki’s government.