A man in Germany who said he had "fallen in love" with the voice of an emergency services operator was taken into custody for repeatedly calling the hotline, authorities said. The 45-year-old called the 110 emergency number from several telephone booths in the western city of Düsseldorf.
Key political advisers to United States President George Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney were named on Sunday as sources in the leaking of the name of a CIA operative. A Time magazine reporter said that Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, was the first person to tell him that a critic of the administration’s decision to go to war in Iraq was married to a CIA operative.
As tears roll down her cheeks Sintamani Shankar (25) stares blankly into the picture of her six-year-old son, Pannerselvam. ”It is all that is left of him. The tsunami took him. But there is nothing, not even a picture of my daughter left for me to remember.”
It began as a hopeless mismatch: a handful of villagers in remote north-west Mayo taking on the multinational Shell. But the Battle of the Bog has turned into one of the biggest protests against Shell in Europe after five villagers were jailed for refusing the company access to their land because they feared a proposed gas pipeline was unsafe.
The African National Congress in the Western Cape on Monday plastered over its cracks with an announcement that provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha is to quit his post on July 27. This followed a politically damaging dispute between Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the recently elected ANC provincial leadership.
Relations between Britain and Pakistan in the aftermath of the London bombings were put to the test on Sunday when one of Islamabad’s most senior diplomats advised against trying to shift responsibility to his country, and blamed British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s policies in the Middle East.
South African investors should put some of their savings in offshore markets in order to take advantage of the opportunities not available in South Africa, as well as for diversification and risk reasons, it emerged at Stanlib’s second investment cnference in Cape Town on Monday.
The Nation Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity on Monday said they are still consulting their members on whether to accept the new wage offer from electricity utility Eskom. Numsa spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said that Eskom has increased its wage offer from 5,5% to 6,5%.
Urgent national legislation is needed to curb irregular and unethical practices in the country’s hunting and wildlife industry, animal welfare groups said on Monday. This has become clear in private workshops and talks with industry role players, said the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and others.
Durban businessman Schabir Shaik’s application for leave to appeal against his fraud and corruption conviction and 15-year jail sentence will be argued in the city’s High Court next Tuesday. ”It could take 10 minutes or two days,” Shaik’s attorney, Reeves Parsee, said on Monday.