Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday he would bombard Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with demands at a forthcoming Middle East summit as Israel seeks to bolster the Palestinian leader in his efforts to rein in Islamist militants.
Claims by two girls of sexual abuse at the hands of two Pretoria advocates were brought into question in the city’s high court on Thursday. Defence counsel questioned a social worker on why certain serious allegations against the pair came to light only months after the girls’ initial complaints.
An original set of waxwork heads of The Beatles, which was used on the band’s album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, has been found and will be put up for sale this month, an auction house said on Thursday. The heads were unearthed in a store room at Madame Tussaud’s waxwork museum in London.
A former United States marine and naturalised US citizen from the Philippines breached security at the White House and allegedly used his top-secret clearances to steal classified documents from Vice-President Dick Cheney’s office, ABC News reported.
New world champion Fernando Alonso insisted on Thursday that seven-time title winner Michael Schumacher can make a comeback next season despite his nightmare year in 2005. Schumacher saw his five-year reign dramatically concluded this season after his Ferrari team slumped behind Alonso’s Renault team and current championship runner-up Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren outfit.
Scientists have launched a global effort to tackle a fungus they fear could have a catastrophic effect on world wheat production. The Global Rust Initiative will implement recommendations made in a report released in Nairobi, Kenya. Nobel Prize-winning crop scientist Norman Borlaug spoke at the launch of the report.
Two impending court dates related to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Oilgate exposé, which revealed that Imvume Management diverted R11-million in public funds to the African National Congress, are set to severely test the rights of South African journalists to protect confidential sources of information.
There is a steady increase in HIV prevalence in South Africa, a professor from the University of KwaZulu-Natal said at the opening of the Gauteng Aids Council conference in Johannesburg on Thursday. The life expectancy in the country would soon plummet from 63 years to 46, Professor Alan Whiteside said.
Indonesian police on Thursday pledged to beef up security in Bali after last weekend’s deadly bomb blasts, as they hunted for leads in the attacks blamed on Islamic militants. The promise came amid concern about visitors returning to the tourism-dependent island, hit on Saturday for the second time in three years by deadly extremist attacks.
Behind a dilapidated store in a dusty field at Athi River, an export processing zone on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, a group of textile factory workers has gathered for a mid-afternoon break. The heat is searing, and the hastily purchased cool drinks quench thirsts. But not tempers.