A British couple recognised as having had the world’s longest marriage ever recorded are celebrating their 80th anniversary on Wednesday, and revealed the secret to wedded bliss as never letting arguments fester. Or, as 105-year-old Percy Arrowsmith put it more succinctly, the regular use of two words: ”Yes, dear”.
A German company on Wednesday launched a collector’s edition doll of Pope Benedict XVI, adorned with a baby’s face. ”Its arms and legs can be moved” and ”its clothes are of a high quality and correspond exactly to the ‘originals’ of the Holy Father”, the manufacturers said.
The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) met with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare on Wednesday for what was described as ”a good conversation” on Zimbabwe’s growing food crisis. UN envoy James Morris said the WFP was ready to provide Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries with humanitarian assistance following a drought.
Muhammad Dahlan’s garden has become a microcosm of Nusa’s post-tsunami recovery efforts. Six weeks ago it was a wasteland of mud, rubble and tree trunks. Now it is a thriving vegetable patch, with sweet potato, maize, chilli and pumpkin plants growing so rapidly they threaten to become entangled in each other.
The European Union launched a tit-for-tat legal action at the World Trade Organisation on Tuesday over what it claims are billions of dollars’ worth of illegal subsidies for Boeing, the United States plane-maker. Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, was forced to initiate the action after the Bush administration rejected his latest offer of cuts in launch aid for Airbus on Monday.
The revered anchor of Israel’s Channel One news programme for more than three decades has caused controversy by making a personalised documentary in which he concludes that Jewish settlements are endangering the country and that the occupation of Palestinian land is a crime.
Listed investment holding group Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) has increased its holding to approximately 40% in Johnnic Holdings following the latest acquisition of an additional 16,5-million shares in the company. HCI said in a statement on Friday that it had paid 975 cents per share for the additional stake.
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Evidence of what the state claimed was a ”generally corrupt” relationship between Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was overwhelming, Judge Hillary Squires said in the Durban High Court on Wednesday. ”The case is convincing and really overwhelming,” Judge Squires said.
To become a cleric in the Orthodox Church in Greece, it’s necessary to be a man, single or married — but not, heaven forbid, a politician, an actor or a gynaecologist. The church’s ruling synod says that people from certain professions will make most unsuitable clergymen.
An Egyptian playwright known for his controversial stance on normalising cultural ties with Israel said he was prevented from leaving Egypt to receive a prize at an awards ceremony in the Jewish state on Tuesday. Ali Salem, the author of over two dozen satirical plays, explained he was blocked at the Taba land border on Wednesday and Cairo airport on Sunday.