"Everywhere you go, senses dulled by the daily workaday drudge are reinvigorated — by the morning-fresh mangoes so juicy they drip down your chin; by the coral reefs that house psychedelic fish and fauna; by the beaches and the people." Soak up Madagascar, where nine out of every 10 species living on the island cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
About 150 school children were hospitalised with suspected food poisoning after attending an event at the Dome in Randburg on Thursday, education authorities said. ”We understand from the emergency services that most of them are safe,” spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said in the afternoon.
The onset of the monsoon has sparked an exodus from the central Indian town of Harsud, which is facing submersion by a new dam, but thousands of families are still refusing to budge, an official said on Thursday. Residents had been warned they would have to move as long as a decade ago.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma travelled to Zambia on Thursday ahead of trips to Kenya, Tanzania and later this month to China and Malaysia as part of a farewell tour before stepping down in March. Nujoma, who is travelling with members of his Cabinet, is to open a trade fair in Zambia.
Microsoft said on Thursday it is revamping its internet search operation and preparing to launch its own search engine later this year to compete directly with Google and Yahoo. The immediate change will be a ”cleaner look” for its MSN Search page that separates paid and unpaid search results and provides direct links to Microsoft’s encyclopedia service.
Kuwait’s information minister has slammed Saddam Hussein for defending Iraq’s 1990 invasion of its Gulf neighbour during his Thursday court appearance and said the former Iraqi leader should be executed. ”The criminal still believes he is the president of Iraq,” Mohammed Abul-Hassan said in Kuwait.
The New National Party on Thursday warned ”certain individuals and institutions” that they are exposing themselves, through unfounded accusations, to possible civil and criminal defamation claims. This came after two Democratic Alliance Western Cape MPLs laid charges of bribery and/or corruption against senior NNP members.
Two Democratic Alliance Western Cape MPLs on Thursday laid charges of bribery and/or corruption against members of the New National Party, including party leader and Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk. The charges relate to planning permission in exchange for donations to the NNP.
NNP calls charges ‘sewer politics’
Archaeologists have led reporters into a remote canyon to reveal an almost perfectly preserved picture of ancient life: stone pit houses, granaries and a bounty of artefacts kept secret for more than a half-century. Hundreds of sites on a private ranch offer some of the best evidence of the little-understood Fremont hunter-gatherers.
Nigeria is to send troops to assist in the peace process in southern Sudan, where Africa’s longest running civil war appears to be on the brink of being resolved, an army spokesperson said on Thursday. Defence authorities have yet to decide whether the troops will be under the auspices of the United Nations peacekeeping mission.