A covert Russian space probe, The Semteski III, has captured an extraordinary battle between two Earth robotic vehicles on the surface of Mars. The robotic explorers were photographed attacking each other, trying to snatch samples from each other’s baskets.
Defence procurement decisions are opaque, corruptible and often subject to political considerations that may directly contradict assessments of affordability and technical specification. So perhaps there is nothing surprising about the draft reports of the investigation into the Strategic Defence Packages reluctantly released by Shauket Fakie, the Auditor General, following a court order.
United States President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have met in Iraq for a secret summit before that country goes to the polls for its first democratic elections.
A group of elderly women has been arrested in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, accused of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. They were allegedly equipped with binoculars and “tubular objects that pose a danger to national security”.
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, this week revealed his plans for “an innovative new initiative” to attract the growing numbers of “theme tourists” to South Africa.
An imaginative solution has been found to the problem of parliamentary travel. This follows on the “Travelgate” scandal, which last year became a threat to the dignity of the politicians elected to serve in this forum of democratic endeavour.
There have recently been encouraging signs that science and technology are climbing back on to the international development agenda. There could not be a more dramatic — or terrible — illustration of the urgent need for this attention than the devastation that swept through many of the coastal communities of south and south-east Asia as a result of the December 26 tsunami.
The West’s crusaders, the United States and Britain, are giving less to help the tsunami victims than the cost of a Stealth bomber or a week’s bloody occupation of Iraq. The bill for President George W Bush’s coming inauguration party would rebuild much of the coastline of Sri Lanka. Bush and Tony Blair increased their first driblets of ”aid” only when it became clear that people worldwide were giving millions and a public relations problem beckoned.
”Fabulous” is how Graeme Smith described his feelings after South Africa beat England by 196 runs in the fourth Castle Lager/MTN Test at Newlands to level the series and bring to an end England’s 13-Test unbeaten run. England were all out for 304 an hour and 22 minutes after lunch to give South Africa their first Test win since March last year.
Test cricket’s second-most-successful bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, is leading from the front to feed the poor in his native Sri Lanka who were rendered homeless by last month’s killer tsunami. Muralitharan has personally spearheaded convoys of trucks carrying food to the country’s remote corners where an estimated 30 000 lost their lives.