United States Gulf Coast residents staggered on Tuesday from the body-blow inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, with more than a million people without power, lowlands swamped and at least 55 dead — a number likely to increase as rescuers reach the hardest-hit areas.
Ethiopia’s prime minister launched a blistering attack on the European Union on Monday, condemning as a ”pack of lies” a report critical of the country’s elections this summer. The EU, which sent observers to 1 000 constituencies, said last week that key aspects of the vote failed to meet international standards.
Scientists have cracked a problem that popular opinion suggests they suffer from most: steamed-up spectacles. The solution, they found, lies in nanotechnology, the science of the vanishingly small. By applying an ultra-thin coating of particles to sheets of glass and other transparent surfaces, scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology made them permanently fog-proof.
They know how United States President George Bush likes his Thanksgiving turkey, how the Queen takes her toast and just how many puddings former US president Bill Clinton can get down. These and other culinary secrets of some of the most powerful, or poshest, people in the world will be adding spice to the dinner table conversation at one of the most select and sybaritic of world summits as it meets this week.
Some of the United States’s leading scientists have accused Republican politicians of intimidating climate-change experts by placing them under unprecedented scrutiny. A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US’s most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairperson of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce.
Two more people have died as a result of an accident at Samancor’s Middelburg Ferrochrome furnace earlier this month, bringing the death toll to six, the company said on Tuesday. Johannes Stephanus Meyer and Johan Pretorius were unable to recover from the injuries sustained when ”hot gases were released” from one of the furnaces on August 17.
Egypt’s presidential electoral commission has banned leading opposition candidate Ayman Nur’s campaign television spot on the grounds the theme song had been plagiarised. A spokesperson branded the move ”one of the dirtiest tricks of the campaign” for the September 7 presidential poll and blamed President Hosni Mubarak’s camp.
Three airlines blacklisted by Belgium because of safety concerns will still be allowed to fly to neighbouring Netherlands without restrictions, the Transport Ministry said on Tuesday. Air Memphis of Egypt, Cargo Freighters of Rwanda and Air Limited of Ghana are authorised to land in The Netherlands but will be under increased surveillance.
A senior United Nations official has accused President George Bush of ”doing damage to Africa” by cutting funding for condoms, a move which may jeopardise the successful fight against HIV/Aids in Uganda. In 2003, Bush declared he would spend -billion on his emergency plan for HIV/Aids relief, but receiving aid under the programme has moral strings attached.
Three top officials of the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) have been suspended and may be prosecuted while the union’s dismissed general secretary will be reinstated. The executive committee decided to suspend Patrick Johnson, Barry Stemmet and Priscilla Kekana in their respective capacities as president, deputy general secretary and second vice president.