French President Jacques Chirac made a final attempt to reverse France’s determination to reject the EU Constitution on Thursday night, imploring voters ”not to answer the wrong question” and insisting their choice was ”about your future, your children’s future, the future of France and of Europe”.
A British airline is targeting a growing market in pet travel by launching a special frequent flyer scheme for jet-setting dogs, cats and other animals. Thus far, four dogs and a cat have been signed up to Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Paws reward scheme since it was launched earlier this month, a spokesperson for the airline said on Friday.
Many Johannesburg residents could be left without gas for three weeks due to technical problems at the Sasolburg plant, Sasol said on Friday. ”We regret the interruption of supply and inconvenience to Egoli Gas and their customers, and are doing everything possible to remedy the situation,” said Sasol Gas MD Hans Naude.
Andy Roddick failed to make it through the opening week at the French Open for the fifth time in as many tries, blowing a two-set advantage on Thursday and a fifth-set lead against Argentine Jose Acasuso. Roddick was broken twice after going ahead 3-1 in the last set and lost 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 8-6.
London’s smallest apartment, a converted storage closet measuring just five square metres, has found a tenant for £585 pounds (about R7 000) per month. Gordon Blausten of the Bruten and Company real-estate agency said the "tiny but trendy" apartment packs in kitchenette, shower and wardrobe under a loft bed.
It is a sight to make the average toddler weep with horror: a billboard not only stating categorically that Santa Claus does not exist, but also condemning him as a tool of consumerism. But following an initial ban, the poster — the work of a Scottish art student — was unveiled in Glasgow on Friday.
The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has come out in support of the South African Rugby Union’s decision on Thursday to resolve its differences internally. President Brian van Rooyen and deputy Andre Markgraaff will try to resolve their considerable differences following Sascoc’s intervention.
Israeli security forces interrogated African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader Fikile Mbalula on Friday when he entered Palestine to attend a meeting. ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Mbalula was on his way to attend a meeting of the Socialist International Council in Palestine.
A suicide bombing at a shrine crowded with Shi’ite Muslims celebrating a religious festival near Pakistan’s capital killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens of others, witnesses said. The explosion ripped through hundreds of worshippers as they recited the Qur’an beneath tents at the Bari Imam shrine on the outskirts of Islamabad.
South Africa’s retail petrol price for all grades will drop by only 16 cents a litre (c/l) from June 1, as an extra 6c/l levy for the reduction of the slate with oil companies was added, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. This reduces the price of a litre of petrol to R5,06 from a record R5,22 in Gauteng.