Sixty-three percent of South Africans are opposed to a war against Iraq under circumstances, and only 20% support war if it is approved by the United Nations, show the findings of a national survey.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Friday invited all South Africans to participate in the drafting of a Moral Charter that will give the country a set of common guidelines for ethical behaviour.

The land reform programme in Zimbabwe was used primarily to secure political patronage and has done irreparable damage to the agricultural production base there, Agri SA claimed on Friday when its leadership returned from a tour of the country.

The theatre break-in was one of Prague’s winter scandals, never properly resolved by the all-powerful communist police. Two young men broke into a city-centre theatre basement, snatched a large one-way mirror, and smashed it to pieces.

North Korea appeared to be making an important step towards producing atomic weapons yesterday by moving 8,000 nuclear fuel rods out of storage, according to United States intelligence from satellite photographs.

Researchers have identified one of the great seducers of the Southern ocean. An elephant seal called Blob travelled over 5 000 kilometres from Macquarie Island in the south Pacific to father at least 19 pups in the Falklands in the south Atlantic.

Tony Blair and George Bush yesterday agreed to give the UN weapons inspectors and the intelligence agencies as long as six weeks to persuade a sceptical France and Arab countries to come on board for military action against Iraq.

Why are sportsmen so often such absolute pricks? It’s one thing to watch the heroes of the rugby or cricket field, the wizards of the courts and fairways, but now we get these people and their opinions shoved right into our faces.