Victor Hugo, Molière, Marie Curie and Charles de Gaulle are still in there fighting. But Alexandre Dumas, Jean-Paul Sartre and Belmondo and even Napoleon are sadly out of the running. Nearly three years after the BBC’s hit Great Britons series, the French, not without some rather Gallic misgivings, have been asked to choose Le plus grand Français de tous les temps, or The greatest Frenchman ever.
Shoko Asahara, whose charisma once drew thousands to his doomsday cult, has turned into a ”doll” in his decade of detention since the Tokyo subway attack, wearing diapers and mumbling incomprehensibly, his daughters say after a series of prison visits.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is asking the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal against a series of fraud convictions. The Pretoria High Court early in February dismissed an application by Madikizela-Mandela for leave to appeal to the SCA for her conviction on 43 counts of fraud and a suspended sentence.
Protesters burned Japanese flags in Seoul on Wednesday as South Korea’s foreign affairs minister denounced Japan for stepping up its claim to disputed islets under Seoul’s control. Minister of Foreign Affairs Ban Ki-Moon condemned the move as ”deplorable”, while his ministry said the Tokyo government must take full blame for all consequences.
World oil prices fell on Wednesday with Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) ministers meeting in Iran under pressure from cartel kingpin Saudi Arabia to raise their crude production quotas owing to strong demand for global energy. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude, for delivery in April, fell to ,45 a barrel in electronic deals.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was slightly stronger in noon trade on Wednesday, with a softer rand supporting resources stocks. The heavy weight of resources kept the bourse in the black, even though decliners outnumbered advancers on the resources index by about two to one.
On Thursday the European Commission pledged €15-million (R121-million) to Zimbabwe and €12-million (R97-million) to Colombia.
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A handful of South African trade unionists gathered outside the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday morning for a picket in support of workers’ rights in that country. Congress of South African Trade Unions representative Jantjie Chiloane said more protesters were expected to arrive by bus from Johannesburg.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says he may sue a top European soccer official who called him ”an enemy of football”. Volker Roth, chairperson of Uefa’s referees’ committee, blamed Mourinho for the resignation of referee Anders Frisk. Frisk stepped down on Saturday, saying he had received death threats that were triggered by remarks Mourinho made.
Former Olympic prospect, Natalie du Toit, continued to make waves on the third day of the Nedbank National Championships for the physically disabled at the King’s Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Tuesday, clipping almost one minute off her own world record for the women’s 400m freestyle set at last year’s Olympics in Athens.