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/ 28 December 2006
In what may prove to be the final message from Saddam Hussein before his execution, the ousted dictator urged Iraqis to unite against the United States and Iran and portrayed himself as a potential martyr. On Tuesday, Iraq’s highest court turned down Saddam’s appeal against a death sentence in connection with a mass killing of Shia Muslims in 1982.
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/ 28 December 2006
The chaos in Asia’s internet service sparked by an undersea earthquake shows the region’s cable network is too fragile and overly reliant on connections to the United States, industry observers said on Thursday. Millions of people across Asia were enduring a second day without full internet services after a 7,1-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan late on Tuesday.
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/ 28 December 2006
The coming year promises to be the most turbulent in South Africa since apartheid’s demise with an already acrimonious battle for the leadership of the governing African National Congress (ANC) set to spill out into the open. ”I would say it will be the most divisive year” since the end of the whites-only regime in 1994, said Cape Town-based analyst Daniel Silke.
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/ 27 December 2006
Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein said on Wednesday that he would go to the gallows as a ”sacrifice” and called on his former Iraqi subjects to unite against their enemies. Saddam, in a letter written to the Iraqi people from his cell and confirmed as genuine by his defence counsel, said: ”I sacrifice myself.”
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/ 27 December 2006
One of the biggest threats facing democracy in South Africa is corruption, the South African Communist Party (SACP) said on Wednesday. ”Apart from HIV/Aids, joblessness and poverty, the single biggest threat facing our democracy is growing corruption in both the public and private sectors,” said SACP president Blade Nzimande in the party’s new year message.
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/ 27 December 2006
British Airways (BA) said on Wednesday poor markings at Miami airport were to blame for a safety scare involving a jumbo jet carrying British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Boeing 747, carrying 343 passengers and crew, was not damaged when it missed an exit on the runway on arrival from London on Tuesday, prompting police cars and emergency vehicles to rush to the scene.
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/ 27 December 2006
As grade 12 pupils around the country brace themselves ahead of the release of the 2006 matric results on Thursday, theirs will not be the only eyes poring over the outcome of the all-important examinations. Given South Africa’s massive skills shortage, particularly in the fields of science and technology, big business and the government are also likely to be keenly scrutinising the scores.
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/ 27 December 2006
Taiwan on Wednesday assessed the damage after a strong earthquake measuring 7,1 rocked the country, killing two people and wounding at least 42. Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to the worst-hit Pingtung area in southern Taiwan where at least three houses were reported to have collapsed and other buildings also suffered damage.
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/ 27 December 2006
Belarus issued an implicit threat that it could stop Russian gas deliveries through its pipelines to Western Europe unless Gazprom relented on demands that Kiev pay steep price increases in 2007. ”We are inter-dependent. If I don’t have a domestic gas-supply contract, Gazprom won’t have a transit deal,” Belarus’s Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said.
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/ 27 December 2006
An SMS alert is triggered in the Eastern Cape about four times a week, warning of bad storm conditions heading towards the province. ”We send them out regularly,” said South African Weather Service forecaster Peter Lumb. ”On average, three to four a week for individual storms. We zoom in on ones that we think will be the most severe and will cause damage.”