Forced off his land in Zimbabwe, 60-year-old Hunter Coetzee has farming in his blood, but it’s Nigerian soil under his fingernails now after the first harvest in his new home. ”Nigeria has offered us hope and succour. We are here for good,” he said contentedly, six years after he thought he had lost everything.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday [Saturday] called his people to a referendum that would in effect recognise the state of Israel, a move that was denounced by the radical Hamas government as a coup. Abbas called the vote just hours after dramatic scenes in Gaza when thousands of mourners expressed grief during the funeral of the family killed by an Israeli attack.
An Egyptian poultry trader found a four-legged cock among chickens he bought from a farm, the official Mena news agency reported on Saturday. The cock, which also had two excretory tracts, weighed 2,5kg, said the man from Kafr Saqr in al-Sharqiya province, 86km north-east of Cairo.
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Argentina took a huge step towards securing a berth in the second round of the World Cup finals by beating an unlucky Côte d’Ivoire 2-1, although the African Natons Cup finalists threatened the two-time winners at the end. The Ivorians, spearheaded by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, repeatedly and clearly troubled the South American defence.
North Korea’s Air Force Command on Sunday threatened to "punish" the United States for its spy flights over the communist state, recalling the fate of a US Navy plane it shot down 37 years ago. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency, the air force said that a US RC-135 reconnaissance plane had made flights over its territorial waters on June 6, 8 and 10.
South Africa is taking small steps to stop Aids from wreaking havoc on its key farming sector in a nation with one of the world’s heaviest caseloads. A few NGOs and farmers have launched testing programmes, but the government has no specific policy for the sector that is emerging as one of hardest-hit by the pandemic.
Nine people were wounded early on Sunday as three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Manila and the city of Lipa on the eve of Philippine Independence Day, police said. All of the injured were hit by shrapnel as a bomb tore through an outdoor chicken market in Lipa, 75km south of Manila, police said. All of the injured were hit by shrapnel as a bomb tore through an outdoor chicken market in Lipa, 75km south of Manila, police said.
Indonesia’s Mount Merapi continued to spew lava and searing clouds of gas and ash on Sunday as geologists maintained the top danger alert on the smouldering volcano. Despite losing a huge chunk of the lava dome forming at its peak on Friday, which lessened the danger of a major eruption, geologists said the volcano still posed a threat.
Death, whether as a protest or an act of desperation, was the only way out of Guantánamo for the three ”war on terror” inmates found hanged in their cells. On one side there is a mini-desert in a parched corner of south-east Cuba. On the other are sharks and a huge expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.
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Goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, who was called into the team at the last minute, pulled off a string of fine saves to give 10-man Trinidad and Tobago a 0-0 draw with Sweden on their World Cup finals debut on Saturday. The 37-year-old West Ham keeper replaced Kelvin Jack, who injured his knee in the warm-up, and he proved to be the star of the show.