An indigent burial support programme was needed to cope with the rising number of HIV/Aids deaths in South Africa, a researcher said on Thursday. Shirley Ngwenya, a public health researcher in Johannesburg, was addressing a Gauteng Aids conference at Gallagher Estate.
Alligators have clashed with pythons before in the United States’s Everglades National Park. But when a 1,8m gator tangled with a 3,9m python recently, the result wasn’t pretty. But when a 1,8m gator tangled with a 3,9m python recently, the result wasn’t pretty. The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole — and then exploded.
Harold Leventhal, a renowned folk-music promoter who worked with Woody Guthrie and introduced Bob Dylan in his first major concert-hall show, has died. He was 86. From the 1950s to the end of the 20th century, Leventhal was a champion of folk music who introduced audiences to both American and foreign artists.
Ten people were killed in a car bombing near the oil ministry in Baghdad in one of a spate of attacks on Thursday, adding to fears of spiralling violence in the run-up to the October 15 referendum on Iraq’s new Constitution. The bombings and shootings came a day after a bomb attack in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, killed 25 people.
The world’s first self-controlled robotic fish were due to be unveiled at the London Aquarium on Thursday, officials said. The three aquatic robots were developed by a team at the University of Essex, in south-east England, to teach the public more about robotic technology.
Almost a fifth of all ill health in poor countries and millions of deaths can be attributed to environmental factors, including climate change and pollution, according to a report from the World Bank. Unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene as well as indoor and outdoor air pollution are all said to be killing people and preventing economic development.
The United Nations has reacted angrily to a decision by the Eritrean government to restrict all UN helicopter flights monitoring a fragile ceasefire in the politically volatile Horn of Africa. The expressions of ”grave concern” came both from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the 15-member Security Council.
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.
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.
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.