People living in communities surrounding a large shallow lake in China have been overrun by field mice after flood waters drove the rodents out of islands on the lake, state media reported on Monday. The mouse invasion began on June 23 when the Yangtze River flooded, raising the water level in central China’s Dongting Lake.
South Africa’s transport system is becoming increasingly inadequate in responding to export-led growth, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Monday. Speaking at the South African Transport Conference in Pretoria, Radebe said road networks were congested and ”bursting at the seams”. A resource not fully used was sea transport.
Microsoft will not say what went wrong inside its Xbox 360 video-game consoles that could lead to -billion in repairs, but bloggers and their online readers seem to have their own answer: heat stroke. Frustrated gamers have been going to blogs and forums to swap horror stories and voodoo-like solutions for problems with the consoles.
The main rebel group in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said on Monday the abduction of a three-year-old British girl was unrelated to political violence and the armed struggle over oil revenues would continue. Margaret Hill was released on Sunday night after four days in the hands of unknown ransom seekers.
When internet consultant Giovanni Gallucci first joined the professional networking site LinkedIn two years ago, he felt like a pioneer. Now he’s one of millions. The 10 biggest social networking sites had more than 200-million visitors in March. Together, their users blogged, tagged, uploaded, messaged and viewed a staggering 34-billion web pages.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his visiting Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, on Monday reiterated their countries’ determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. ”Iran cannot and should not have a military nuclear capacity,” said Prodi on his first visit to the Middle East since taking office in May last year.
Drug trafficking has risen sharply in Africa, which has become a favoured transit point for smugglers moving drugs from Latin America to Europe, a senior Interpol official said on Monday. ”Africa is a region where drugs are produced, consumed and trafficked,” said the international agency’s executive director of police services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.
An English court found three defendants guilty on Monday over a failed Islamist plot to set off bombs in London on July 21 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings that killed 52 commuters in the capital. Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed were found guilty of conspiracy to murder after a six-month trial.
Internet search giant Google said on Monday it has agreed to buy web security firm Postini for $625-million in cash, expanding its business software applications. Google plans to operate the company as a subsidiary in its Google Apps (applications) unit, which includes its email, calendar and documents applications.
Religious scholars gathered outside a besieged Pakistani mosque on Monday, asking Islamist militants to send out dead and wounded along with women and children, a day after authorities gave "a final warning" to surrender.