The United States Congress held an unprecedented hearing on Thursday on India’s Dalits, once known as the ”untouchables,” highlighting what it calls a key human rights issue in the world’s largest democracy. About 200-million of India’s estimated population of a billion people are Dalits, occupying the bottom rung in Hinduism’s 2 500-year-old caste system.
Young, clean-cut North Korean guards keep alert as South Koreans scramble up Mount Kumgang, a craggy tourist enclave inside the Stalinist state. They seem happy to welcome their richer brothers and sisters from capitalist South Korea to North Korea’s only tourist resort, known as Diamond Mountain in English.
Merck opened its defence on Thursday in the second product liability trial over its arthritis medicine, countering claims that it did not study whether Vioxx might cause more heart ailments than other pain relievers. Merck researcher Dr Briggs Morrison told jurors the company conducted several studies of Vioxx before putting it on the market in May 1999, each concluding that Vioxx posed no threats to heart health.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor expressed horror on Thursday at the disruption of the matric-exam process in the Eastern Cape by teachers involved in a labour dispute. ”We must not allow the Eastern Cape to get the lowest pass rates again,” she reacted to reports that teachers have been prevented from submitting pupils’ year marks.
After opening in the black, the JSE surrendered its gains on Friday morning, extending its losing streak into a third day. The bourse’s weakness was in line with the global trend. By 12.05pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices shed 0,85% and 1,08% respectively.
Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla’s office on Friday morning vehemently denied reports that he had to be rescued from a stone-throwing crowd in Delmas the previous afternoon. Makwetla was meeting residents on the typhoid outbreak and was seeking to reassure them that the water in the area was safe to drink.
Yahoo chairperson Terry Semel belittled rival Google’s recent efforts to expand beyond its leading internet search engine, describing the diversification as a haphazard attempt to catch up with his company. ”So far they don’t seem to have a plan, but maybe they do,” Semel said on Thursday.
Erotic-club owner Andrew Phillips failed in his Constitutional Court bid to have a restraining on his assets rescinded, the court ruled on Friday. Phillips was arrested in 2000 to face charges under the Sexual Offences Act and a restraining order was placed on his assets.
China’s embassy in Harare has appealed to the Zimbabwean government to protect its nationals following the murder of a Chinese man in the capital. In a statement, the embassy noted with concern that several Chinese nationals and companies had been ”plundered by armed robbers”, the state-controlled Herald reported.
The chase, for Flavio Briatore, is everything. Whether he is masterminding a third formula-one drivers’ world championship at Renault or attempting to buy Chelsea Football Club with Bernie Ecclestone, the climactic moment always seems hollow in comparison to the build-up. Briatore reveals the secrets of Fernando Alonso’s success to Donald McRae.