United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US is making a difference to relieve a refugee crisis and African peacekeeping troops are helping to stop atrocities in Sudan’s ravaged Darfur province. ”We are not where we were a year ago,” Rice said on Wednesday, ahead of her first trip to Sudan as secretary of state
A photographer accused of threatening to sell topless photos of Cameron Diaz testified that he initially thought the signature on her photo release form was authentic and acknowledged he hadn’t personally asked her to sign it. John Rutter (42) testified on Wednesday that his practice during photo shoots was to have an assistant take care of the forms instead.
Disputed catches won’t be referred to the third umpire in Thursday’s first Ashes Test unless absolutely necessary. Australia captain Ricky Ponting and England skipper Michael Vaughan reached an agreement on Wednesday on the issue of contentious catches at a meeting with umpires Rudi Koertzen of South Africa and Aleem Dar of Pakistan, and match referee Ranjan Madugalle.
Michael Schumacher can look forward to noisy support from his loyal home fans at this weekend’s German Grand Prix — and not much else. A victory seems out of reach for the seven-time Formula One champion and his underachieving Ferrari team.
Nasa set Tuesday as the tentative launch date for the shuttle Discovery, after saying it was confident the technical glitch that delayed the original July 13 launch has been overcome. ”Right now we think we have eliminated all possible causes” related to the glitch, said shuttle programme director Bill Parson.
United States film director David Lynch said on Wednesday he is seeking to raise -billion to fund a giant programme of transcendental meditation which he says will foster world peace. The Oscar-nominated movie-maker will on Thursday launch the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-based Education and World Peace.
Witchcraft, sorcery and fortune-telling are no longer illegal in Australia’s second-largest state after the Victorian state Parliament sitting in Melbourne on Thursday updated the statute book. ”It’s almost 200 years old and is steeped in the language and attitudes of Dickensian England,” Attorney General Rob Hulls said when introducing legislation to repeal the Vagrancy Act.
Kenya has its fair share of South Africans and when one has a craving for boerewors, koeksisters and melktert, one can head straight for Gail’s Kitchen on the outskirts of Nairobi. South African-born Gail Unsworth says she has trained a team of Kenyans to make food ”the South African way”.
The United Association of South Africa (Uasa) and the management of South African Airways (SAA) will meet on Thursday for informal discussions regarding pay negotiations. Uasa called off Wednesday’s nationwide strike after SAA management agreed to meet the union.
A report from a United Nations fact-finding mission on Zimbabwe’s demolition campaign was turned over to the Harare government on Wednesday and will be made public on Friday or Monday, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told a press briefing.