Microsoft on Friday confirmed rumours it planned to launch an "iPod killer," saying its challenge to Apple Computer’s dominant MP3 player would hit the market this year. Microsoft’s new "music and entertainment project" was called "Zune," the software giant’s general manager of marketing, Chris Stephenson, revealed in a statement.
Chinese authorities were warned against cover-ups on Saturday after the death toll from Tropical Storm Bilis more than doubled overnight. A week after Bilis made landfall, the official number of people killed in gales and floods was given at 518, nearly 300 more than the 228 previously reported, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Wage talks between mining company Kumba and employees have deadlocked, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Friday. The union was awarded a certificate for a right to strike following an absence of consensus at a meeting facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, the NUM said in a statement.
At least 654 people were killed by the tsunami that smashed into the heavily-populated south coast of Indonesia’s Java island this week, the government said on Saturday, raising the toll by 101. As many as 329 remain missing and 978 people were injured after Monday’s tsunami, according to figures compiled by the National Disaster Management Coordinating Agency.
North Korea admitted on Friday that hundreds of people are dead or missing after torrential rains swept the country, but international aid agencies say they are struggling to gauge the level of fatalities. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that floods had also destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of buildings.
The Lebanon crisis entered a dangerous new phase on Friday night as Israeli troops and tanks massed on the border in preparation for a sweeping ground operation against Hezbollah fighters. Israeli commanders plan to clear a 1,5km-wide zone on the Lebanese side of the border, where there are a series of well-fortified Hezbollah positions, a senior Israeli official said.
Israel called up thousands of reservist soldiers on Friday but a military source ruled out a mass invasion of southern Lebanon, saying the army would step up pinpoint cross-border attacks against Hezbollah guerrillas. Fearing a large-scale Israeli ground attack, thousands of Lebanese civilians fled north after the Jewish state warned them to leave border villages.
KwaZulu-Natal education minister Ina Cronje on Friday threatened legal action against the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Youth Brigade after it claimed a ”link” between Cronje’s husband and the company distributing stationery for the education department. At a press conference on Thursday the brigade called on KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele to sack Cronje.
Italy’s Matteo Tosatto handed the Quick Step team and his country their first victory in this year’s Tour de France when he won the 18th stage on Friday. Tosatto, who was part of a long-range breakaway, outsprinted compatriot Cristian Moreni of the Cofidis team at the end of a 197km ride from Morzine to Macon. German Gerolsteiner rider Ronny Scholz took third place.
Thousands of Lebanese civilians fled north on Friday after Israel warned them to leave border villages and called up 3Â 000 army reserves in a possible prelude to a ground offensive. Amid world concern, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to leave for the Middle East on Sunday in what diplomats called a bid to reduce the fighting.