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/ 17 November 2006
The Zimbabwean government on Thursday asked more than 800 white farmers to claim compensation for properties seized under the state’s land redistribution programme, but the main farmers’ support group described the proposed compensation as ”daylight robbery” in the country’s hyperinflationary economy.
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/ 17 November 2006
A British man who spent 18 years in a Pakistani jail for a murder he says he didn’t commit, was released on Friday, the Pakistani interior minister said. President Pervez Musharraf commuted Mirza Tahir Hussain’s death sentence on Wednesday after the British government and rights groups had pleaded for clemency for the 36-year-old from Leeds.
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/ 17 November 2006
Hardly any Japanese felt the earthquake in the distant north Pacific this week, but anyone watching television saw a tsunami warning and thousands evacuated to higher ground. While the waves that rolled ashore were only about 40cm high, a network built up over decades has made possible the swift dissemination of information vital to saving lives.
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/ 17 November 2006
Dozens of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country’s publishing industry into crisis. Companies that once specialised in popular fiction and other money-spinners are now being restricted to academic texts.
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/ 17 November 2006
Britain launched a ”Most Wanted” website on Friday detailing the names and pictures of missing child sex offenders. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre said the website would include the background and pictures of paedophiles who had failed to comply with regulations requiring them to notify their whereabouts with the police.
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/ 17 November 2006
Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday. The robot, nicknamed the ”bionic hornet”, would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers.
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/ 17 November 2006
Ségolène Royal’s battle to become the first woman president of France begins in earnest on Friday, after the Socialist party on Thursday night overwhelmingly endorsed her as their candidate in next April’s election. ”This moment of happiness is an intense experience. You won’t be disappointed,” she told party members.
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/ 17 November 2006
Dear Auntie Robert,
I am sure you don’t want to add yet more fuel to the veritable furnace of opinion about Mr Jacob Zuma’s campaign to be the next president of South Africa. In the absence of — in my opinion anyway — any other credible presidential candidates among the ANC elite, I have to wonder whether Mr Zuma wouldn’t ultimately be the best bet for us all.
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/ 17 November 2006
Throngs mobbed stores to buy Sony’s eagerly-awaited PlayStation 3 from New York to San Francisco on Friday as the video-game console finally made its United States retail debut. The long line of bleary eyed customers finally made their way to cash registers with their prized consoles shortly after the stroke of midnight.
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/ 17 November 2006
A drilling company has started operations for diamond exploration in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, an area that Bushmen believe they were evicted from, Survival International said on Thursday. TH Drilling confirmed to two members of the First People of the Kalahari organisation that it had started operations in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.