Internet betting sites are offering odds on when Fidel Castro, the Cuban President, will die, as members of the Cuban government report that his condition is stable and he is recovering from an intestinal operation. The Costa Rica-based BetUS.com gambling site claimed on Friday that it had taken ”thousands” of bets.
When Douglas Adams wanted the answer to life, the universe and everything, he arrived at the number 42. Now, a few decades later, astronomers have caught up, choosing that number as the diameter — in metres — of a proposed new telescope that could reveal whether life exists anywhere else in the cosmos.
There was some good news this week for Mel Gibson as he attempted to rescue his career from the firestorm provoked by his anti-Semitic outburst a week ago. He will not have to go to court and will thus avoid the public walk so beloved of United States cable channels, a second act to the ritual of the star’s mugshot.
A major oil slick was spreading north from Lebanon along the Syrian coast on Friday night and could devastate beaches as far away as Turkey and Cyprus, local ecologists and the United Nations have warned. The slick follows the bombing by the Israelis of fuel tanks at the Jiyyeh power station south of Beirut.
The premiere of Oliver Stone’s movie about 9/11, the studio bosses had promised, would be low-profile: a restrained affair, designed to show sensitivity towards the tragedy. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have passed that message to the throngs of people that colonised half a Manhattan block for the launch of the film.
This week South Africa experienced weather extremes starting with a berg wind and a tornado, and ending with snow and floods. A report by South African Weather Service meteorologists Luis Fernandes and Lee-Ann Clark — from the National Forecast Centre in Pretoria — detailed the week’s strange weather.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang urged business leaders on Friday to join the government in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) in the workplace. Tshabalala-Msimang told the business leaders present that health and safety at work should include measures against infectious diseases.
A police officer was shot dead in Actonville, Benoni, on Friday afternoon when he confronted a man who was acting suspiciously, said North Rand police. He was on duty and in uniform when he confronted the man, who tried to run away, said Superintendent Eugene Opperman. The police officer gave chase.
Floods and landslides in North Korea have killed at least 151 people and left 29 missing, the Red Cross said, but the exact death toll could be much higher. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said floods also damaged 23 400 houses and rendered about 17 000 families homeless.
The body of a 45-year-old Mpumalanga woman was stolen from a mortuary in Ermelo, police said on Friday. Superintendent Abie Khoabane said that Sibongile Nhlabathi’s body was taken to Siza Funeral Services at 11am on Thursday after she died of natural causes.