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/ 15 November 2006
South Korean engraver Kim Young-sik looks in the mirror every morning and sees the reflection of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. As his bouffant-combed hairline recedes, the 56-year-old resident of Seoul is a dead ringer for the rarely seen North Korean of big hair, spectacles and platform shoes fame.
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/ 15 November 2006
Five senior Iraqi police officers were arrested on Tuesdya night after gunmen in police uniforms seized scores of people at a prominent scientific research institute in Baghdad in an audacious operation that underlined the lawlessness gripping the Iraqi capital and the threat it poses to the country’s tottering education system.
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/ 15 November 2006
Most of the dozens of hostages seized at a Higher Education Ministry building on Tuesday were freed in operations by security forces in Baghdad, state television Iraqiya said early on Wednesday. There was no immediate confirmation of late night raids to free the hostages or word on whether any had been injured.
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/ 15 November 2006
Deep-sea trawling is destroying underwater mountains teeming with marine life and causing irreparable damage to ecosystems, scientists warned on Wednesday.
Most of the underwater volcanic mountains, or seamounts, which contain deep-sea corals and are home to thousands of marine species, are in unregulated areas.
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/ 15 November 2006
Peugeot’s new 107 proves that cheap and cheerful need not translate into cheap and nasty when used to describe an entry-level car. The 107 sells in three variants, and even the base-model XR comes with five doors, dual airbags, electrically assisted power steering, ABS brakes, a rear wiper and a full-sized spare wheel. For less than R90Â 000 that’s a lot of specification.
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/ 15 November 2006
Expletives are scrawled across the classroom walls, the library ceiling has collapsed and up to 45 pupils cram into each filthy classroom — when the teachers turn up that is. But despite the shoddy state of her school, 14-year-old Constance Mpho has even bigger worries.
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/ 15 November 2006
The operation was meticulously planned and had the benefit of pinpoint accurate intelligence. The van was travelling on a circuitous route through the backwater of Scranton in Pennsylvania, well away from the main interstate highway 80 that led to its destination, New York.
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/ 15 November 2006
The South African Reserve bank will remain resolute to keep inflation under control, and not hesitate to change monetary policy before Christmas if necessary, Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday, signalling another rate hike.
The Reserve Bank has already raised its repo rate by 150 basis points since June to curb inflationary pressures, and most analysts expect more increases ahead.
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/ 15 November 2006
The city of Los Angeles is principally famous for two things: glittering movies and suffocating smog. Now researchers have found that the two are not unconnected. A study by the University of California Los Angeles shows the film and television industry to be the second largest polluter in the Los Angeles area.
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/ 15 November 2006
The final issues are being sorted out between Alcan, the Canadian aluminium company, and South Africa over the building of a smelter at Coega in the Eastern Cape, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Tuesday. Briefing the parliamentary media, the minister said his government had been "in touch" with Alcan "quite a lot in the last two weeks".