A bomb threat that forced a United Airlines 747 jet to make an emergency return to Sydney International airport was a hoax, police said late on Tuesday. Police superintendent Peter O’Brien said passengers and crew aboard the flight had been cleared of writing the hoax note, which triggered a full-scale security alert.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119367">Bomb note grounds Aussie flight</a>
Zambian and Angolan interior ministers on Tuesday were holding talks to try to clear obstacles in the way of allowing about 40 000 refugees from Angola to return home, an official said. Zambia is sheltering close to 200 000 Angolan refugees, the highest number of Angolans living outside their country.
A wild-eyed Russian fires a revolver above his head. And they’re off. Ivan storms into the lead with Dukat and Olga III in hot pursuit, knocking into the walls of the little plastic corridors they are enclosed in, each beast straining for that winning edge. Welcome to the wild world of cockroach racing.
A United Airlines flight from Australia to Los Angeles returned to Sydney International airport late on Tuesday afternoon after staff on board found a note carrying a bomb threat, Australia’s transport minister said. Roads leading to the airport also reportedly were closed off during the emergency.
France’s first gay marriage — performed last month in the southwest city of Bordeaux — was officially declared void by a court on Tuesday. The judge sided with the conservative government by ruling that the June 5 wedding between a shopkeeper and a male nurse was not allowed under French law.
As the muddy brown flood waters began to recede in the northeastern Indian state of Assam on Tuesday, government officials warned of the threat of water-borne diseases. Meanwhile, flood waters that have submerged two-thirds of Bangladesh leaving 30-million people cut off or homeless will not recede for at least a week, experts warned.
The Eastern Cape soccer referee who allegedly shot and killed a coach and injured two players during a dispute over a decision is still on the run, Grahamstown police said on Tuesday. The shooting allegedly occurred during a match between the Ekuphumuleni and Marcelle soccer teams at Kenton-on-Sea on Saturday.
The Department of Foreign Affairs could still not confirm on Tuesday that South African citizens were among the suspected terrorists arrested in Pakistan on the weekend. On Monday a Pakistani newspaper reported that two South Africans were among terrorism suspects arrested after a shootout on a house in Gujarat early on Sunday.
South Africa is enjoying a high-growth and low-inflation economic environment last seen in the 1960s, but this is not reflected in investors’ portfolios, Alwyn van der Merwe, senior portfolio manager at Old Mutual Asset Managers, said on Tuesday at a media briefing in Johannesburg.
A new R5 coin with added security features was launched at the South African Mint Company in Pretoria on Tuesday in a bid to outsmart counterfeiters. The new coin, seven million of which will come into circulation next Monday, sports a silver-coloured border with a bronze-coloured centre.