A United States juror got a rude awakening when an angry judge fined him $1 000 for letting out a loud yawn during an attempted murder trial, a media report said on Wednesday. The juror’s ennui interrupted the selection of the panel ahead of opening arguments in a trial in Los Angeles.
Lonely people longing for pictures of their loved ones to speak will now have their dream answered by raising a finger. A Tokyo day-care company will next week begin marketing a "talking picture", which can play messages when the reader uses a scanner that reads invisible barcodes on the photograph.
Insurgents in Iraq have released a video showing the burned-out wreckage and 11 victims of a helicopter crash, as Washington insisted it is able to stop rebel attacks amid another horrific discovery of corpses. Amid fears that violence is spiralling to new highs, Iraqi politicians continued to quarrel over the make-up of the new government.
Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla is moving to defuse tension between her department and senior judges, as new legislative proposals on the administration of courts lend momentum to the controversy over political interference in the functioning of the courts. The minister says she will meet judges to ”resolve disagreements” over controversial Bills.
Twin brothers from Russia were due to set off from Western Australia on Friday in a bid to cross the Indian Ocean in a rowboat, Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio reported. Alexander and Sergey Sinelnik (31) hope to be the first to row the 7 400km from Australia to South Africa.
Monkeys at Tel Aviv zoo will be fed unleavened bread during Passover week, as workers at the menagerie cannot touch yeast, which is religiously prohibited during the Jewish holiday. The zoo, situated in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, shelters a family of five orang-utans, six gorillas and several chimpanzees.
Former Zimbabwe information minister Jonathan Moyo says claims by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change that the ruling Zanu-PF rigged the elections are credible. In an exclusive interview with the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i>, Moyo also ruled out economic revival in Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe.
KwaZulu-Natal finance minister Zweli Mkhize escaped unhurt when the aircraft in which he was travelling made an emergency landing at Durban International airport on Thursday night, Premier Sibusiso Ndebele said. Mkhize was travelling with his wife, May Mashego, and bodyguard Mfihlo Gwala, Ndebele said on Friday.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, in power since his country’s independence from Britain in 1980, has reaffirmed he will retire in 2008 and stressed that he is not grooming an heir, a state-owned daily reported on Friday. ”I will never groom a successor,” he said. ”We will never do that. We will never make that mistake.”
Army troops and rebels began pulling back heavy weapons from front lines in Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday, a crucial step toward implementing a South African-brokered peace deal to end more than two years of civil war. The pull-back sets the stage for a nationwide disarmament campaign.