People in South Africa are scared of rampaging crime. Robbery, of course, is only one of many crimes over which South Africans obsess. With constant reports in the media of carjackings, rapes and murders, and with friends and family readily sharing their personal brushes with violence, it is no wonder that crime and safety issues are on many minds.
The Italy soccer team will find themselves in familiar surroundings when they arrive at their World Cup accommodation in Duisburg, Germany. Antonio Pelle, an Italian expatriate from the southern region of Calabria, jointly owns the four-star Landhaus Milser hotel and has gone to great lengths to ensure his illustrious guests don’t feel homesick.
More arrests were expected following the detention of 17 people over an alleged al-Qaeda-inspired plot to bomb high-profile targets in Canada. Amid media reports that the Canadian Parliament was on the group’s hitlist, Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said: ”This investigation is not finished.”
The price of bread in Zimbabwe has gone up from Z$85 000 (84 US cents) to Z$130 000 ($1,28) for a standard loaf, with bakeries blaming the increase on the unavailability of flour and the rise in fuel prices, the state-owned <i>Herald</i> newspaper reported on Tuesday.
There’s not many bowlers in the world who can take eight wickets in an innings and have that performance rated only somewhere among their top 10. On Monday it looked as though Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan might become only the third bowler in cricket history to take all 10 wickets in an innings — after former England spinner Jim Laker and India legspinner Anil Kumble.
About 200 hooligans ordered to hand over their passports by May 30 have failed to do so, the British Home Office announced on Monday. The order was given to stop known troublemakers heading to Germany for the World Cup but several have ignored the order.
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Ghana are not afraid to play Italy or their other Group E opponents at the World Cup after receiving a boost with the return of midfielder Michael Essien. The West Africans, making their first World Cup appearance in Germany, were buoyed by Sunday’s 3-1 warm-up victory over South Korea.
The United Nations Security Council has arrived in Sudan with assurances that the UN has no intention of taking over the country and sees the government as a partner in promoting peace. The government has been very reluctant to allow a UN peacekeeping force to take over from the 7 000-strong African Union force now in conflict-wracked Darfur.
The diamond industry has promised much but done little to end the illegal trade in so-called blood diamonds, which fund wars in Africa, the British non-governmental organisation Global Witness said on Monday. Elements of the diamond industry ”continue to trade in conflict and illicit diamonds, while the rest of the industry turns a blind eye,” it said.
A theme hotel built around the brand of a lads’ mag might strike the more refined traveller as somehow tacky. But context is everything: the new Maxim Hotel and Casino, costing ,2-billion, will open in Las Vegas, where no hotel worthy of the name does not boast a replica of the Great Temple of Ramses.