An oil and gold-encrusted portrait by Gustav Klimt that was the focus of a battle between the Austrian government and the subject’s niece was purchased for a record-setting amount by a New York museum, an attorney said. The New York Times, citing experts familiar with the negotiations, reported the portrait sold for -million.
Zimbabwe’s long-term economic survival prospects look dimmer by the day with analysts warning that the government’s mortgaging of the country’s minerals to Asians is sure to lead to more troubles in the future for the world’s fastest-shrinking economy.
While senior managers express real anxiety about bribery and corruption in their emerging-market operations, many are still not taking the threat seriously enough. Robust business ethics, backed up by proper control processes, have to be ingrained into local operations, and not just comprise an extension of head-office culture.
About 200 displaced white farmers from Mashonaland West province have turned down an offer of farms by the government, saying there was no guarantee the government would not in future turn back on the offer and evict them again, reports <i>ZimOnline</i>.
The 21-year-old student who allegedly tried to force his way into the cockpit of a South African Airways (SAA) aircraft with a hypodermic needle on a flight from Cape Town on Saturday is to appear in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s court on Monday, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported.
Tourists to the Great Wall of China more often than not get a decidedly modern view of the ancient structure, walking along stretches rebuilt and repaved to handle millions of visitors every year. But a battle-scarred section in the historic garrison town of Zhangjiakou, 180km north-west of Beijing, is one of the first to allow visitors to walk next to the ancient edifice in its natural state.
Support for a third term for President Thabo Mbeki has cost South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) leader Mlungisi Hlongwane his job, media reports said on Monday. Hlongwane was suspended as president after his calls for a third term for Mbeki as head of state.
United States military commanders were engaged in a desperate hunt for two US soldiers kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents on Sunday as thousands of troops massed close to the volatile Sunni city of Ramadi in the largest such crackdown in months. The men went missing after insurgents attacked three US army Humvees at a checkpoint near a canal in Yusufiya on Friday night.
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The sleep-deprived green and gold army that cheered Australia on through the early hours in their homeland on Monday were disappointed but not dejected at the Socceroos’ battling 2-0 loss to Brazil. While a fairytale win over the world champions did not materialise, Australians consoled themselves with their unfancied team’s gritty display.
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For Netherlands football fans it has become the summer’s cult outfit. Over the past few months, a quarter of a million Netherlands supporters have bought themselves a pair of patriotic orange lederhosen — wearing them whenever Holland take to the pitch in the World Cup. But when Netherlands fans turned up on Friday to watch their team play the Côte d’Ivoire, wearing the garish trousers, officials from Fifa were not amused.