A new video-enabled iPod is expected to be unveiled by Apple Computer during a press conference next week — though the maverick company is masterful at foiling such predictions. Apple e-mailed invitations that included the words ”One more thing …” printed over a background photo that appears to depict theatre curtains.
European governments have agreed to withhold funding commitments for a new Airbus plane set to be launched on Thursday while negotiations continue to resolve their aircraft subsidies dispute with the United States. ”The deployment of possible aid will not be immediate,” French Minister of Transport Dominique Perben said.
Tropical Storm Stan only briefly reached hurricane strength but by Thursday killed at least 160 people as it roared across Mexico and Central America. Forecasters warn the remnants of Stan can still produce heavy rains and trigger severe flooding and landslides. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Tammy is bringing rain to Florida.
While Leigh Matthews’s kidnapper and murderer Donovan Moodley sits behind bars, an expert detective is continuing his search for accomplices he believes helped Moodley, News24 reported on Thursday. He is searching for a possible witness who could shed further light on who looked after Matthews’s body.
Zimbabwean police late on Wednesday released an opposition lawmaker and at least 16 of his constituents who were arrested earlier in the day for walking to work to protest chronic fuel shortages, their lawyer said. Gilbert Shoko and opposition supporters were arrested as they walked to the city centre, their lawyer said.
Cape High Court Judge President John Hlophe has dismissed as ”utter rubbish” allegations that he racially abused a top white lawyer and told him to go back to The Netherlands. Hlophe said on Wednesday night he had no idea where the allegations came from. ”It is absolute rubbish,” he said.
Scorpions detectives belonged in the police and prosecutors with the National Prosecuting Authority, a commission of inquiry heard on Wednesday. South African Police Service advocate Philip Jacobs said prosecutors should remain true to their role while investigators have to fall under the command and control of the police.
The White House has been dialling numbers it normally only needs at election time. Those numbers belong to Christian conservatives, also known as the ”base” for their unstinting support of the president. That base has been split in two by President George Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers as the new judge on the Supreme Court.
Britain and Iran clashed openly on Wednesday night after a senior British official directly accused Tehran of supplying Iraqi insurgents with sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed eight British soldiers and two security guards since May. The bombs have created havoc among British forces in southern Iraq.
The United States has warned Nicaraguan politicians that millions of dollars of aid will be withheld from the country if any moves are made to oust the President, Enrique Bolaños. The US deputy secretary of state is in the capital, Managua, this week to head off the possibility of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega returning to power.