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/ 12 October 2005
For a nation that is already two years into its manned space programme, China displays a remarkable lack of consensus on what to call its men in orbit. This is no trifling matter since space travellers are probably the only profession in the world with different names in different countries, reflecting their status as belonging to a tiny elite.
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/ 12 October 2005
Ten-year-old Liam Aspeling, who was kidnapped in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, on Tuesday, has been found, a friend of the family said on Wednesday. The multimillion-rand hijacking trial in which Aspeling’s father is to testify for the state is scheduled to start in the Cape High Court on Monday.
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/ 12 October 2005
A Japanese government committee is mulling a copyright-law revision to charge royalties on digital music players, but the opinion is so divided on the so-called ”iPod tax” that it isn’t likely to be charged, officials said on Wednesday. The panel is made up of academics, consumer-rights activists and other experts.
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/ 12 October 2005
Elusive Peace charts the story of Bill Clinton’s failed attempt to resolve the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, a struggle that reached its dismal climax at Camp David in 2000. The latest effort by the remarkable filmmaker Norma Percy features interviews with all the key players — Ehud Barak, Yasser Arafat and Clinton himself.
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/ 12 October 2005
United States Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Wednesday that China’s ad-hoc financial system needs greater reform if the world’s fastest-growing economy is to fulfil its great economic potential. Snow is touring China ahead of a key meeting in Beijing of the Group of 20 larger developing countries and rich nations.
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/ 12 October 2005
The stress of post-Soviet social changes ranging from work redundancies to rebellious children is forcing thousands of people to seek psychological help from a unique network of centres in Moscow. ”We’re expanding and it’s always full,” said Valery Shatilo, deputy director of the Moscow Psychological Help Service.
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/ 12 October 2005
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has joined the condemnation of continuing and often violent farm seizures, saying new seizures and the under utilisation of land already confiscated were hurting the government’s effort to check hyperinflation.
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/ 12 October 2005
Waving banners and banging drums, thousands of primary school children on Wednesday paraded through the northwest Chinese city of Jiuquan, celebrating the nation’s second manned foray into space. ”Shenzhou VI successfully launched,” they chanted in not entirely perfect unison, one hour after China’s most ambitious space mission yet blasted off from a secretive launch site in the desert three hours’ drive away.
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/ 12 October 2005
Egypt has banned all live poultry imports and called off this year’s wild bird hunting season, in an effort to keep out potentially deadly bird flu. The Cabinet stressed late on Tuesday that Egypt would stop ”all live birds imports whether from countries with which we have import agreements or not”.
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/ 12 October 2005
The final portion of storm-savaged New Orleans was open to residents on Wednesday, with road blocks lifted at a neighbourhood nearly obliterated during hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mayor Ray Nagin cleared the way for displaced residents to return to the Lower Ninth Ward for the first time since storms and flooding laid waste to the working-class neighborhood.