Jack Slipper, the Scotland Yard detective who pursued one of Britain’s ”Great Train Robbers” across many years and two continents, has died at the age of 81, the metropolitan police said on Wednesday. The force said the retired detective chief superintendent — known as ”Slipper of the Yard” — died on Wednesday after a long illness.
Jack Slipper, the Scotland Yard detective who pursued one of Britain’s ”Great Train Robbers” across many years and two continents, has died at the age of 81, the metropolitan police said on Wednesday. The force said the retired detective chief superintendent — known as ”Slipper of the Yard” — died on Wednesday after a long illness.
The jewel in South Africa’s tourism crown, Cape Town, faces a filthy future as the city’s six major landfill sites are expected to reach their capacity in the next five years. ”We have a serious crisis. Imagine what the city will look like in 2010,” said Saliem Haider, acting head of disposal in the city’s solid-waste department.
Heavy flooding has claimed the lives of 13 people in Romania over the past three days and three more are missing, the country’s interior minister said on Thursday, warning that the toll could rise further. Vasile Blaga said 400 houses have been swept away by flood waters.
A bizarre diplomatic skirmish has broken out after Belarus retaliated against Lithuania’s decision to build a radioactive waste dump close to their shared border by announcing plans to put two giant pig farms in sniffing distance of its neighbour.
France could face its worst period of social unrest for a decade, analysts and commentators warned, as Dominique de Villepin’s centre-right government returns on nThursday from its summer break. With petrol prices soaring, economic growth hesitant, trade unions furious, public confidence in the country and its political leaders at rock-bottom.
Iran’s new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suffered his first political setback on Wednesday night when the conservative-dominated Parliament rejected four of his proposed Cabinet ministers, including the nominee for the strategically vital oil portfolio.
Uganda, a country regarded as a pioneer in the fight against HIV/Aids, was on Wednesday accused of ”serious mismanagement” of funds intended for the campaign. The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria suspended grants to the country worth hundreds of millions of dollars after an investigation found flaws in a government agency’s accounts.
People in England and Wales are more likely to commit suicide on a Monday than on any other day of the week, a tendency consistent with data from other countries, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Thursday. A review of 34 935 suicides found that about 17% of the deaths occurred on Mondays.
A powerful typhoon was closing in on Japan on Thursday, grounding planes and bringing warnings of torrential rain, landslides and high waves in large areas of the country. Typhoon Mawar, packing winds of up to 144kph near its centre, was approaching Japan’s main island of Honshu at a speed of 15kph.