Badminton players in the United States have become the latest group to suffer the consequences of bird flu, claiming its spread is fuelling a shortage of top-quality, goose-feather shuttlecocks. They say that bird flu’s progress around the globe — and the resultant cull of millions of geese — has dramatically reduced the quantity of feathers available and pushed up the price of the premium shuttlecocks.
<i>Terminator</i> star Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday gave Tony Blair a few suggestions for when he says "Hasta la vista" to being British prime minister. The Hollywood actor, now the Republican Governor of California, was asked if he had any tips for Blair, with whom he signed a partnership agreement to tackle global warming.
Denmark’s train network on Monday was thrown into chaos by a pigeon that alighted on a high-tension electricity wire, causing a short-circuit that brought services to a standstill throughout the country, the national rail company (DSB) said.
Production was brought to a halt at Kumba’s three largest mines in South Africa on the third day of a strike by the trade unions Solidarity, the National Union of Mineworkers, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Building Allied Mining and Construction Workers’ Union, Solidarity said in a statement.
The silence on the full reasons for the axing of Johnnic Communications CEO Connie Molusi has been questioned by shareholder Coronation Fund Managers. Media reports on Tuesday quoted Coronation as saying Johncom’s lack of disclosure on the matter was ”unacceptable” for a publicly listed company.
Not much has been left to fate as the yearly Oppikoppi music festival approaches once again, writes Riaan Wolmarans.
Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated United States attempts to oust him and survived communism’s demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night because of surgery.
Tourists sunning themselves in the Canary Islands came to the rescue of 88 immigrants from Africa whose canoe-shaped fishing boat grounded on a beach in Tenerife. They were given first aid by holidaymakers and locals who took some of the most severely dehydrated to hospitals near the town of Granadilla in their cars.
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Jacob Zuma has acknowledged that he is running out of money, media reports said on Tuesday. Zuma said he was unemployed and struggling to pay his legal representatives. Zuma has one junior and two senior advocates appearing for him in his corruption trial — the same legal team that handled his rape trial.
An international drive for a ceasefire in Lebanon halted on Monday amid sharp differences at the United Nations Security Council, Israel’s rejection of any truce in the near future and a Hezbollah warning that it would oppose the deployment of a multinational security force.