No image available
/ 25 January 2007
A Japanese toymaker selling miniature buses has discovered an unexpected fan base — balding men. The toy is a replica of a bus that used to run in the 1980s to Mashike, a northern town known for herring. But the characters for the town’s name can also be read as "Zoumou", which in Japanese means "increasing hair".
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
The failure of efforts to demobilise thousands of fighters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and train a army would risk destabilising the country, Amnesty International said on Thursday. The group urged the DRC to forge ahead with integrating ex-combatants into the national army.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Seventy-one people have died in flash floods following torrential rains across Angola, with almost all the fatalities reported in the seaside capital Luanda, the fire service said on Thursday. Luanda is home to about 4,5-million people and despite Angola’s oil riches has a skeletal infrastructure, which has been further damaged by the downpours.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Commonwealth secretary general Don McKinnon on Wednesday voiced disappointment at Zimbabwe’s worsening political crisis and hoped the Southern African nation would eventually rejoin the bloc. ”We are very sad about the situation in Zimbabwe, we hope they will uphold standards of human rights and they will come back and join the Commonwealth,” he said.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Google announced on Friday that another major United States college library had joined its controversial project to put the world’s books online. The more than one million written works at the University of Texas library in the city of Austin will be converted to digital format and added to the Google Books Library Project.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Windows XP, the current dominant operating system, has met its successor. Vista will launch its bid to conquer PCs worldwide under the Microsoft banner starting on January 30. Millions of XP users will supposedly be convinced to make the switch, but that may be more difficult than advertised.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Live music and internet-based social networking sites YouTube and MySpace are helping break new music acts — but video games are the latest new cool music space. ”It’s a great way of breaking new artists,” Joseph Stopps of independent, United Kingdom-based dance-music company MofoHifi said.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Microsoft plans to extend the free support period for its Windows XP Home Edition software at least one year longer than originally planned, a news report said on Wednesday. Darren Huston, president of Microsoft’s Japan unit, said in an interview that the company would extend the support period on a global basis until sometime after 2010.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
A man has been charged in connection with the murder of two black teenagers abducted and killed in Mississippi in 1964 at the height of the United States civil rights era, US officials said on Wednesday. James Seale was arrested in the case and charges against him were sealed, according to a US law enforcement official.
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Ecuador’s first female defence minister was killed on Wednesday after only nine days in office in a mid-air collision of two helicopters, government and military officials said. The accident in the Andean nation further rocks the leftist government of President Rafael Correa, who has clashed with Congress over his executive powers.