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/ 12 December 2006
Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday sparked an uproar after an apparent slip of the tongue in which he for the first time listed Israel as a nuclear power, but few expected the blunder to alter the Jewish state’s "policy of nuclear ambiguity". Israel, widely considered the Middle East’s sole nuclear power, has for decades refused to admit or deny whether it possesses an atomic bomb.
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/ 12 December 2006
A 19th-century commercial sailing ship has been found sitting upright with its twin masts still intact in deep, frigid waters off the southern shore of Lake Ontario. ”It’s not unheard of to have well-preserved ships, but this one is in so good a shape,” a shipwreck explorer said on Monday. ”It almost looks like it could be floated.”
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/ 12 December 2006
Conservationists panicked when more than a million litres of jet fuel spilled out from OR Tambo International Airport and flowed into the Blaauwpan Dam, east of Johannesburg, in early November. It has been a month since the leak occurred and the area is still being rehabilitated — but how was it possible for so much fuel to end up in the dam?
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/ 12 December 2006
New Zealanders looking for some extracurricular activity are now able to apply for the position of condom tester. Condom manufacturer Durex is looking for test pilots of its products, and says New Zealanders were chosen because they are among the most sexually active and adventurous in the world.
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/ 12 December 2006
The alcohol-fuelled office Christmas party is becoming a thing of the past in Australia now that lawyers are willing to start the new year by sending out compensation claims for staff injured during the big night in the office. Bosses are now rather treating their staff to lunches in posh restaurants.
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/ 12 December 2006
South Africa’s Big Four was reduced to Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Trevor Immelman after the anticipated withdrawal of two-time champion Tim Clark ahead of the 2007 South African Airways (SAA) Open Championship at Humewood. Clark sustained a minor injury to his neck during the Nelson Mandela Invitational.
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/ 12 December 2006
World crude prices fell on Monday largely in reaction to warmer-than-normal temperatures in the United States, despite expectations that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) oil cartel is poised to trim its production. New York’s main contract closed down 81 cents at ,22 per barrel.
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/ 12 December 2006
Sweet-toothed Swedes who have spent hours constructing edible Christmas gingerbread houses are seeing their creations collapse in the Scandinavian country’s unusually damp winter, suppliers said on Monday. ”The damp weather spells immediate devastation for gingerbread houses,” a gingerbread wholesaler’s spokesperson said.
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/ 12 December 2006
Côte d’Ivoire is ending the year on a turbulent note, with protests against President Laurent Gbagbo’s decision to reinstate officials implicated in the recent toxic-waste scandal — and ongoing tensions between Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny.
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/ 12 December 2006
Sir Alex Ferguson ordered his Manchester United players on Monday to win the Champions League, the English Premiership and the FA Cup if they want to be considered as a great side. He told his charges it is time to prove how good they are by turning their promising start to the season into silverware.