”Are my sons under the ashes? Only God knows,” says a veiled Oum Hassan, weeping as she rests in a public garden after fleeing Beirut’s southern suburbs where her home was turned to rubble by Israeli air strikes. Clad in black, the widow sits on a green bench under the tall trees to seek shelter from the blazing summer sun and cries.
Afrikaans newspapers have maintained a stable readership since the end of apartheid in 1994. This despite facing numerous challenges, writes Flip Meyer.
There was nothing ailing about Harold Pinter’s passionate and astonishing Nobel lecture, which mixed moral vigour with forensic detail, reports Michael Billington.
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A tsunami triggered by a strong undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia’s Java island on Monday killed at least 80 people, swept away buildings and damaged hundreds of fishing boats, officials and witnesses said. News of the disaster spread panic across a region still recovering from 2004’s tsunami disaster.
Captain Inzamam ul-Haq steered Pakistan to the safety of a draw in the first Test against England at Lord’s on Monday with an unbeaten 56 in his team’s 214-4 on the final day. Pakistan, set 380 to win from 80 overs, made no effort to go for the runs after swing bowler Matthew Hoggard dismissed both openers with only 33 on the board.
A tsunami caused by a strong undersea earthquake off the south coast of Indonesia’s Java island killed at least 80 people on Monday, a Red Cross official said. ”Our latest data shows 80 people have died while at least 68 are badly injured,” said Fitri Sidikah, an official at the Indonesian Red Cross disaster centre.
Malawi on Monday launched a week-long HIV testing campaign amid fears the fight against Aids is being hampered by people not knowing whether they have the virus. The campaign follows the revelation that only 15% of the country’s population of 12-million people have been tested for HIV/Aids.
Stressing gains in financial stability and democratisation, African heads of state meeting hundreds of foreign business leaders in Abuja, Nigeria, called on Monday for stepped-up investment in the continent. ”Africa is changing. Both economic and political landscapes are improving,” said Nigerian Foreign Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Group of Eight (G8) leaders on Monday launched a fresh bid to pin down an elusive global trade pact, seeking to give a positive outcome to a big-power summit riven by discords over the Middle East. Hopes of progress towards unblocking deadlocked world trade talks raised spirits at the end of the G8 summit in St Petersburg.