The statutory body that monitors examinations has said that the standard of the 2003 matriculation examinations will be investigated amid controversy over whether the pass rate was manipulated and artificially inflated, it was reported on Sunday.
A six-wheeled robot weighing as much as two people slammed into the atmosphere of Mars yesterday morning at 19 200kph, opened a parachute, fired rockets, inflated its airbags and bounced safely to a halt on the floor of a meteor crater.
The Egyptian charter airline whose Boeing 737 crashed on Saturday killing all 148 people on board, including 133 French tourists, has been banned from flying to one European country for more than a year because of safety concerns, it emerged on Sunday.
It is Basra’s latest tourist attraction: Saddam Hussein’s luxury yacht, still lying half-submerged in the city’s shabby harbour. The yacht was one of first targets in the coalition’s campaign nine months ago to get rid of Saddam. But the missile failed to sink Al-Mansour (The Victory) — which now lies half across the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
A voice on an audio tape purporting to be that of Osama bin Laden on Sunday urged Muslims to rise up against United States forces in Iraq and disparaged the US-backed ”road map” for peace in the Middle East. The tape, if authenticated, could offer further compelling evidence that the al-Qaeda leader is still alive despite a two-year manhunt.
US to fingerprint foreigners
Luxury lodges earn millions of dollars each year from foreign tourists looking for an exclusive African getaway. The tourism industry is growing into a juggernaut of the South African economy. Yolandi Groenewald takes a look at some of them that are spreading the benefits of tourism beyond their own bulging pockets.
"Seeing as it’s just after the media atrocity known as ‘Christmas’ I thought it’d be useful to find out a bit more about this Jesus person who keeps being mentioned on boring TV shows. Luckily this Jesus guy has his own homepage." And for those of you in need of the ultimate hangover cure, Ian Fraser has just the tonic.
The White House has retreated from its doctrine of regime change and pre-emptive military action and is returning to traditional diplomacy in an effort to repackage George Bush as a president for peace. The signs of a thaw in US relations with countries like North Korea and Iraq point to a different approach emerging in Washington.
President Thabo Mbeki is a man on a mission. He believes he can secure what he calls leadership renewal in Zimbabwe by June. But how effective will he be when, according to some soul-baring on the ANC Today website, he sees Mugabe as more sinned against than sinning — a victim of the very forces Mbeki blames for having thwarted his own diplomacy at Abuja?
South African seam bowler Andre Nel, who has proved a constant thorn in the West Indian side, admitted on Sunday that there were times he thought he would not play Test cricket for his country again. Nel took a career best five for 87 to help dismiss the West Indies for 427 and go some distance in clinching the four match series.