The total revenue generated by the Star Wars film saga would be enough to propel Skywalker Ranch, its nerve centre in California, into the top half of the international wealth league, ahead of Bulgaria, Cyprus and Iceland. If Star Wars was a country, its -billion would place it 70th in the World Bank’s rankings of countries according to gross domestic product.
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A human rights campaigner on Saturday said that 500 people may have died in violent clashes in Uzbekistan in which government troops fired on protesters to put down an uprising. The Uzbek President, Islam Karimov, blamed Islamic militants for the violence, saying that the rebels who seized the state building belonged to the outlawed Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s legislature has adopted a new Constitution that reduces the required age for presidential candidates, a move that would allow President Joseph Kabila to stand in the country’s next elections, officials said on Saturday.
The Cats and Sharks drew 20-20 in a scrappy, bottom-of-the-table Super 12 clash at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein on Saturday evening that consigned the Durban-based outfit to the wooden spoon. The Cats led 10-7 at half-time. The teams fought out a ding-dong battle in the opening 40 minutes as they tried to throw caution to the wind in a bid to entertain the meagre crowd.
An earthquake measuring 6,9 on the Richter scale rocked parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake prompted residents in Nias island, where about 900 people were killed in a powerful quake on March 28, to run out of their homes in panic.
The 62 alleged mercenaries, imprisoned for a year in Zimbabwe, were still in Chikurubi prison at 8am, their lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, said on Saturday. The men should have been released on Tuesday when their sentences expired. Immigration officials have changed their minds several times about when the 62 will be released.
South Africa’s cricket captain Graeme Smith may be missing from action, but his side will be going all-out to complete an unprecedented clean sweep of a one-day international series against the West Indies in the Caribbean when the last two matches of their best-of-five series are played on Saturday and Sunday.
A top al-Qaeda suspect arrested in Pakistan could have vital information about possible terrorist attacks on Britain, intelligence sources believe. British security and intelligence officials are seeking information from Abu Faraj al-Libbi, believed to be number three in the al-Qaeda leadership, to find out what he knows about any operations planned against Britain or British interests abroad.
When it comes to movies at the Cannes film festival, away from the worthy official screenings things are horrifying. Quite literally. This year has seen a surge in titles promising brain-eating, blood-splattering and nightmare-inducing action in that section of the market where hundreds of movies are on sale.