Italian police arrested seven more suspects in the snowballing Parmalat fraud scandal as reports suggested the bankrupt food giant may soon turn to the banks for a multi-million pound rescue package to stay in business. The arrested are suspected of criminal association leading to fraudulent bankruptcy and false accounting.
Michael Jackson was allegedly paid an extra -million for a planned television appearance to secure an exclusive interview broadcast last Sunday in which he accused police of manhandling him. Jackson, is due to appear in court on child molestation charges.
Families divided between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir for more than half a century were offered the chance yesterday of being able to travel across the de facto border which splits the Himalayan territory. India has also offered to open another bus route through Kashmir and lift travel restrictions on Pakistani diplomats.
The Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing say they have unearthed the partial skull and jaws of the most primitive specimen yet of the mammalian line which gave rise to modern primates — a group which includes lemurs, loris, monkeys, apes and archbishops
In his first New Year message to ”all citizens of Africa” since assuming office in September, African Union (AU) chief Alpha Konare said he was fully aware of the ”deep aspirations and high expectations” of Africans for greater peace and security and easier movement of persons and goods.
The government has repossessed about 400 farms from black owners who occupied more than one property seized from white farmers under a controversial land redistribution program, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.
A 42-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping two friends, aged seven and 10, on two separate occasions in Gugulethu, Middeldrift, Grahamstown police reported. The police said the rapes occurred on Monday while the children were playing outside their house.
Human rights activist Judith Todd says she had been forced to forgo her Zimbabwean citizenship in order to obtain a New Zealand passport and be able to travel. Todd has fought a two year battle with Zimbabwean officials who claim she has not renounced a claim to New Zealand citizenship through her father.
The African Union (AU) has ”strongly condemned” the killing of Vatican’s ambassador to Burundi, Archbishop Michael Courtney, who was gunned down in an ambush in the central African country early this week. The AU said it would continue to work for the success of the peace process in Burundi
South Africans are less apprehensive about the year ahead than they were a year ago, with only one in every four South Africans (24%) saying that 2004 would be worse than 2003, according to a Markinor. A further 32% said that 2004 would be the same as 2003, and 38% thought the New Year would bring them better things.