At least 83 people were killed and 200 injured when car bombs ripped through shopping and hotel areas in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik in the worst attack in Egypt since 1981. Shaken European tourists spoke of mass panic and hysteria as people fled the carnage early on Saturday, with bodies strewn across the roads, people screaming and sirens wailing.
Roman Polanski, the Oscar-winning film director and fugitive from American justice, was awarded £50 000 in damages by a high court libel jury on Friday over a claim that he made sexual advances to a Scandinavian woman shortly after his wife Sharon Tate’s brutal murder in 1969.
Zimbabwean opposition and human rights activists are ”ecstatic” at a United Nations envoy’s report denouncing a government crackdown that has forced thousands of poor from their homes and jobs. The report calls the operation a ”disastrous venture” that has left 700Â 000 people without homes or jobs.
If you are bored with being the irregular dependent of a funding agency and want a secure future with a suburban subsidy and medical aid to cover the costs of garlic, the department of Arts and culture is the place for you, writes Mike van Graan.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski on Friday won his libel suit against the publisher of Vanity Fair magazine over an article that accused him of propositioning a woman while on the way to the funeral of his murdered wife. Polanski was awarded £50 000 (R577 000) in damages.
The selection of nine black players in the 22-man Springbok rugby squad and six in the starting line-up shows South Africa is moving towards ”normal sport in a normal society”, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Mbeki wished the Springbok team success in their clash against the Australian Wallabies at Ellis Park on Saturday.
The Zimbabwe government is studying a United Nations report on a controversial government campaign of shack and home demolitions and President Robert Mugabe will respond to it at an ”appropriate time”, it was reported on Friday.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has ordered police to arrest miners who vandalise property while continuing a strike for higher pay and better work conditions, a presidential spokesperson said on Friday. Striking miners on Thursday set off explosives at the biggest copper mine, which caused extensive damage.
British Muslims said they fear police are operating under a ”shoot to kill” policy after a man was gunned down at an underground train station on Friday following a new wave of bomb attacks. Police have confirmed that officers pursued and shot a man who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Friday insisted a draft Constitution pushed through Parliament by his ruling coalition will improve Kenya, though protesters who clashed with police as lawmakers debated the charter complain it gives him too much power. Lawmakers voted 102 to 61 to approve the draft Constitution.