United States troops on their way to Iraq peppered the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, with complaints on Wednesday, claiming they were heading into the conflict zone with pieces of scrap metal for armour. Speaking from the audience at a base in Kuwait, Thomas Wilson asked: ”Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armour our vehicles?”

It is, say the builders, the world’s biggest indoor water attraction, complete with a lagoon, sandy beach and rainforest. And inevitably perhaps for a German theme park, there will be 900 sun loungers. Next week Europe’s first covered tropical island is to open its doors in Brand, a hamlet in former communist East Germany.

The body of one of three boys who were swept down the Jukskei river was found in Bruma Lake on Thursday morning, Johannesburg emergency services said. The body was found while a team were conducting a search around the lake with dogs. A Sapa reporter on the scene said that 10 divers and two dinghies were spread out in a long line.

General Tommy Franks, the United States commander in the Iraq war last year, spelled it out before the invasion began. ”We don’t do body counts,” he said, referring to the Iraqis that might be killed in the forthcoming conflict. His deputies were left to explain why a careful toll of the US dead was kept but Iraqi deaths went unrecorded.

The <i>M&G</i> has always taken strong positions. Readers pay for a paper with attitude — sometimes they agree with it, sometimes they don’t. There are always some who are outraged, but the editorial philosophy is that debate, even intense disagreement, is better than lukewarm silence. So can the <i>M&G</i> be accused of anti-Americanism? Our ombud, Franz Krüger, takes a closer look.

At a loss as to what to get the guy who has everything? Ian Fraser has unearthed the items that your recipient is guaranteed to not have already. Try … the children’s knitted gimp suit, nipple guards, "pull my finger Santa dolls", road rage signs — and a range of other goodies Verimark won’t be trying to sell you — all available at a www near you.