A billion-dollar survey of the world’s oceans has so far pinpointed 38 000 marine species — and identified new fish at the rate of two a week. The census of marine life, a concerted effort by hundreds of scientists from more than 70 nations, is in effect the first hi-tech inventory of life in the so called ”blue planet”.

Iran on Monday moved to avoid a showdown with the West over its contested nuclear activities by freezing all operations connected with the enrichment of uranium into nuclear fuel. Reacting to the news of a freeze during a visit to Colombia, United States President George Bush said: ”Let’s say I hope it’s true.”

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) on Monday tabled its comments and understanding of ministerial determinations in the telecoms sector and announced the schedule to be followed ahead of February 1. This comes as a result of Icasa’s two-day colloquium, which sought to engage the telecommunications sector on the scope of the determinations by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

George W Bush draped his pro-rich, pro-military, pro-Halliburton and profoundly un-American post-9/11 budget in the American flag. He threw the book of compassionate neo-conservatism at Congress with distracting stars and stripes covers. Now our compassionate neo-colonialist, RW Johnson, has swaddled his own book in our South African flag, writes Ronald Suresh Roberts.

In 1993, after 15 years of rapid growth, China’s exports had barely crept back to where they were in 1928. By 2000 the dollar economy, hailed as the future engine of global growth, was barely bigger than those of Spain and Holland combined. Even now, China’s gross domestic product is less than a quarter of Japan’s. Has China’s the economic miracle been overstated?

South Africa rugby team manager Arthob Petersen has said Springbok administrators will have to accept their share of responsibility for the Tri-Nations champions’ back-to-back defeats on their European tour. Now in Edinburgh, ahead of Saturday’s encounter with Scotland, Petersen said: ”The players are very disappointed — but not despairing.”

When 70-year-old Marie Mangou ran away from her home in Côte d’Ivoire, she trekked for hours through dense jungle and crammed into a creaking canoe to reach the safety of neighbouring Liberia. Now the feisty grandmother cannot manage another step. She is one of at least 10 000 Ivorians who have fled their homeland in the last two weeks.