President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to resign from his military rank of lieutenant-general in order to concentrate on party politics will have little effect on the ongoing effort to root out the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army from northern Uganda, according to an opposition MP.
The recording industry’s legal onslaught against internet song-swappers appears to be having its desired effect. The percentage of Americans who download music online has been sliced in half. Only 14% of internet users surveyed from November 18 to December 14 said they sometimes download songs to their computers, according to a report.
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.