Thirteen people have been killed in two seperate car boms in Iraq. Ten people lost their lives in the first explosion in the northwestern city of Hadithah, while three suicide bombers were killed when their explosive-packed vehicle detonated near a military installation in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
Living in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, is getting harder as weary residents battle with frequent power cuts, water shortages and the ever-rising prices of basic goods. Harare once boasted the nickname ”Sunshine City” but in the depths of a Zimbabwean winter, it’s looking less and less that way for all residents.
Two Australian men, charged with chewing up and spitting out live mice in a pub competition, appeared in court on Thursday. The men face animal cruelty charges and could face fines of up to Aus,000 or two years in prison if they are convicted. The men were competing for a holiday valued at Aus.
Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand is hoping to pinpoint the gene sequences that inactivate the virus that causes hepatitis B, an illness carried by more than 380-million people worldwide, the university said on Thursday. Wits said that it is using new technology to try to stop hepatitis B from recurring in the body.
The United States Congress hopes that ,6-million will create enough incentive for drug companies to create enough vaccines and antidotes to protect Americans from chemical and biological attacks. The program, called Project BioShield, was passed on Wednesday and President George Bush’s endorsement is guaranteed.
The Jamuna River burst its banks and surged through 25 villages while residents slept in northern Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people as homes, crops and trees were washed away. About 10 000 villagers were washed out of their flimsy homes. The toll from monsoon flooding in Bangladesh and its neighbours has reached 339.
Think of Aids in Africa and the odds are that you do not visualise anything like the infectious-disease care clinic in Gaborone, Botswana — a place of life, not death. Several hundred patients turn up each day, and increasingly they come not on stretchers or in wheelchairs but on foot.
Marks and Spencer shares tumbled on Thursday after the British tycoon Philip Green dropped his proposed takeover offer for the group, ratcheting up the pressure on its new management to deliver results. The billionaire retail magnate abandoned a third informal offer for the century-old British retailer late on Wednesday.
The charisma of Nelson Mandela and the cheque book of Bill Gates joined forces at the International Aids Conference in Bangkok on Thursday to lay assault on tuberculosis (TB). Mandela branded TB a silent slayer in the HIV/Aids pandemic, while Gates’s charity unveiled a ,7-million grant.
Don’t forget about TB, says Mandela
Iraq’s vital oil industry was again targeted as saboteurs launched a series of attacks that damaged pipelines at seperate sites in the north and south of the country. Also in the north, an unidentified police officer with the state-run oil company was gunned down at a checkpoint near a pipeline in Riyad.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118734">Provincial governor assassinated</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118765">Twin car bombs kill 13 in iraq</a>