It is worthy of a political thriller. The political elite in Paris is gripped by the search for an anonymous poison-pen writer who concocted fake allegations against leading politicians and businessmen. The so-called ”Clearstream” affair is the latest battle in the bitter rivalry between the presidential pretender, the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin.
More than 1 000 Iraqis who live south of Baghdad within the bombed and looted complex that was once the centre of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear programme are at acute risk of radioactive poisoning, the United Nations’ nuclear authority said on Monday.
The architect Frank Gehry unveiled plans on Monday to build a 50-storey, glass-encased tower in the heart of central Los Angeles as the centrepiece of an ambitious ,8-billion redevelopment plan. The plan aims to restore a vibrant and thriving downtown to a city many say lacks a civic centre.
Iran’s nuclear programme is the biggest threat to Jews since the Nazi Holocaust, the Israeli government stated on Monday, as the Iranian president renewed his calls for the dissolution of the Jewish state. As Israel prepared to mark Holocaust memorial day, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, further stirred international outrage by calling on Israeli Jews to be resettled in Europe.
Prosecutors in the trial of Saddam Hussein played a recording on Monday said to be of a phone conversation in which the ousted Iraqi leader agreed to ”change the social reality” in the Shia town of Dujail. The alleged phone call related to a crackdown launched in Dujail after Saddam’s motorcade was shot at in July 1982.
Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chief, on Monday told a courtroom that his pursuit of the American dream had ended in an ”American nightmare” after the business collapsed amid allegations of fraud in 2001. Taking the witness stand for the first time as his trial on fraud charges moved into its 13th week, Lay said he was eager to set the record straight.
Loud snoring will join obesity, prominent tattoos and drug taking on an extended list of unacceptable physical traits for recruits to the People’s Liberation Army. No details were given on the permissible volume of snores but under the new rules, the 2,3-million personnel in the world’s biggest standing army will have to give urine samples to test for narcotic abuse.
Zimbabwe State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has reiterated threats that the government will use armed soldiers and police to crush mass protests planned by the opposition for the winter. Speaking to ZimOnline at the weekend, Mutasa said no one should expect the government to "keep its security organs in the camps" in the face of opposition-instigated protests meant to oust it.
At one end of the stock exchange a man writes numbers on a whiteboard with a blue marker; at the other end brokers tap sums into large calculators. Shares are bought and sold in crisp, verbal transactions, the deals noted on ledgers filled with carbon paper. In the corner a man with a laptop, the only computer in the room, keeps a record of the trading.
Three gunmen robbed pupils at Johannesburg’s Parktown Boys’ High of 12 cellphones, five watches and cash, police said on Tuesday. The three, one of them armed with a handgun, stormed into the Grade 11 class at 1.45pm on Monday, ordered the pupils and their teacher to lie down and took their possessions, Inspector Mosima Manganye said.