As you drive west of Banda Aceh, through the splintered streets, you soon reach the groves of palm trees that flank the scarred road but fail to conceal the devastation on either side. You keep the vehicle’s windows up to shut out the smell of the thousands of bodies that still lie, unclaimed and unidentified, under the rubble, the thick silt, the smashed timber and the standing, stagnant saltwater.
Orlando Pirates maintained their unbeaten record after their 1-1 draw with Wits University in their Premier Soccer League match at the Johannesburg Stadium on Saturday. Pirates are yet to taste defeat after 14 games. They still lead the pack on the table with 30 points while Wits, who added their 14th point from their 13th league match, remained in ninth position.
Silver Stars started the new season on a high note when they beat a struggling Santos 2-0 in their PSL match at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Saturday. The hosts started the match like a house on fire and they showed all the signs of being the better side. The Capetonians went into this match on the back of a 1-0 setback against defending champions Kaizer Chiefs in Johannesburg on Wednesday night.
Britain’s public broadcaster said on Saturday it would press ahead with plans to televise Jerry Springer — The Opera, despite receiving a record number of complaints before the expletive heavy musical has even aired. The British Broadcasting Corporation said they had received 40 000 complaints regarding plans to broadcast the West End show, inspired by Springer’s trashy television talk programme.
Tribal elders in southeastern Afghanistan have threatened to torch the houses of people found growing opium and make them pay a hefty fine in a bid to stamp out the burgeoning poppy cultivation. By far the most drastic suggestion yet offered for tackling the country’s rampant drug trade, the punishment has failed to win the approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai despite his anti-narcotics stance.
The gold standard of sterling is long forgotten and now the supremacy of the greenback has been surpassed. The world has a new global currency — airline frequent flyer miles, which have a greater total value than dollars, euros, pounds or yen. By the end of 2004, almost 14-trillion frequent flyer miles had been accumulated worldwide.
The United Nations said on Friday the Sudan government and Darfur rebels have responded positively to a temporary ceasefire plea to allow a planned polio vaccination campaign to go ahead next week. But Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, raised fears that rebel groups fighting government forces in Sudan’s western Darfur region are planning to launch attacks ahead of Sunday’s peace deal signing ceremony to end the country’s 21 year southern civil war.
Forty years after three civil rights workers were killed on a dirt road in Mississippi on a night that came to symbolise the racial hate of the American South, an elderly leader of the Ku Klux Klan appeared in court on Friday to be formally charged with their murder. Edgar Ray Killen appeared handcuffed and in an orange prison jump suit to plead not guilty to three counts of murder.
The Pentagon has ordered a comprehensive review of its Iraq strategy in the face of mounting casualties and an increasing strain on the United States army and its reserve ranks, it was reported on Friday. A retired four-star general, Gary Luck, is due to arrive in Iraq next week to conduct an ”open-ended” rethink of tactics, troop levels and the training of Iraqi forces.
Allawi to lock down Iraq on election day
The favourite to win the Palestinian presidential election, Mahmoud Abbas, on Friday night called for an end to ”the chaos of guns” in Palestinian society and expressed optimism that a ceasefire in the four-year uprising would be agreed by all factions. An Israeli was killed on Friday near Nablus by the al-Aqsa Brigades, suggesting Abbas will have trouble reining in even his own faction.
Abbas views Sharon as partner