Several villages in southwestern Iran were damaged on Tuesday when 11 mild earthquakes struck the area in quick succession, state radio reported. An official told state radio that successive tremors are ”a warning of a more powerful earthquake, and inhabitants of the area should be vigilant”.
Iran considers moving capital
Britain sought on Tuesday to allay fears about putting sky marshals on commercial airliners, saying it is a "responsible and prudent step" in the face of the threat of global terrorism. The British pilots’ union, Balpa, has recoiled at the plan, and the country’s biggest airline, British Airways, is also reported to be cool to the idea.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and other humanitarian agencies will this week launch the second phase of emergency aid distributions in northern Somalia, where tens of thousands of people are facing food shortages because of drought.
Former rebel movement Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie-Forces pour la Defense de la Democratie (CNDD-FDD) appealed on Monday to the Burundian army and the Forces Nationales de Liberation (FNL) rebel faction led by Agathon Rwasa to stop using landmines.
Europe’s mission to land a spacecraft on a comet is set for takeoff next month, officials said on Tuesday, a year after the project was delayed because of problems with a rocket launcher. The European Space Agency will propel the Rosetta craft into space on February 26 from a base in Kourou, French Guiana.
The Competition Commission has referred the large merger in which the Tiso Consortium proposes to acquire all of the issued share capital currently held by the minority shareholders in New Africa Investments Limited to the Competition Tribunal for adjudication.
The year 2003 was a black year for press freedom, with 42 journalists killed and a dramatic increase in other violations, the watchdog group Reporters sans Frontières said in its round-up for the year. ”Every gauge of press freedom violations in 2003 stood at red alert,” it said in its annual report.
Economists are predicting that this election year will be a stable one, with the rand/dollar exchange rate hovering between R6 and R8, and the interest rate remaining steady. Standard Bank economist Monica Ambrosi said on Tuesday the rand would end the year on an annual average of R6,60 to .
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Tuesday pledged its full support for members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) employed by Equity Aviation, who are on strike for the third week over wage increase demands.
US President George Bush on Monday renewed US sanctions imposed on Libya in 1986, saying that Tripoli must follow positive overtures on unconventional arms with ”concrete steps.” Sanctions — which include a freeze on Libyan assets in the United States — have been renewed annually since they were first imposed in 1986.