Bones and skeletons have disappeared from the Chinese version of the popular online fantasy game World of Warcraft, sparking fierce criticism from the nation’s army of players, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The skeletons, regular characters, grow flesh in the new version.
Three metro police officers and their families have gone into hiding for fear of their lives, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Wednesday. They are ”living in terror”, their counsel, Marne Strydom, told the court. The three men have asked the court to grant a restraining order against metro police chief Robert McBride.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner travels to Serbia this week amid signs that Europe is ready to recognise Kosovo’s independence even without a supporting United Nations resolution. Serbia rejects independence for Kosovo, seen by many Serbs as the cradle of their nation and religion.
The Railway Safety Regulator on Wednesday appealed to motorists to be extra vigilant in the vicinity of railway stations and trains. This comes after two accidents occurred on Wednesday morning in Pretoria West and Randfontein. In one, a truck crashed head-on with a train, injuring at least 20 commuters and the train driver.
The official story goes like this: on the last night of Jim Morrison’s life, the rocker went to a movie in Paris, listened to records, fell ill and died of heart failure in his bathtub at age 27. But rumours and mystery have always swirled around the death of the Doors frontman, and now a former Paris nightclub manager is telling another story.
Floods caused by abnormally heavy rains have affected nearly 7Â 000 people in southern Ethiopia, disaster officials said on Wednesday. "Almost 7Â 000 people are already affected by the floods caused by heavy rains in the south of the country for more than a week, especially in the Omo region," said Sisay Tadesse, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Agency for Disaster Prevention.
Trade unions and employers in the metal and engineering industry reached an agreement on Wednesday, ending a two-day strike, union Solidarity said. However, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa dismissed claims that it had reached an agreement.
The state on Wednesday urged the Wynberg Regional Court to refuse bail for slain entertainer Taliep Petersen’s widow, Najwa, as well as for one of the three co-accused in the murder, Abdoer Emjedi. Najwa’s own family handed to the court a petition in which the community demanded she remain in custody.
African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region are facing a serious funding crunch that has affected morale ahead of deployment of a planned United Nations-AU force, the head of the joint mission said on Wednesday. Under sustained pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined UN-AU peacekeeping force of 20Â 000 troops.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown set a target on Wednesday of building three million new houses in Britain by 2020 under measures to tackle a growing crisis over a shortage of affordable homes. Brown knows that solving the housing problem and improving public services may be crucial to his Labour Party winning a fourth successive general election.