Palestinian prisoners linked to Hamas and Fatah have jointly called for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, to lead negotiations with Israel on the creation of a state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Abbas welcomed the prisoners’ proposals as a means of breaking the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic deadlock
The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the United Nations. the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200 000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004/05.
United States President George Bush appreciates the importance of shredding personal documents before you throw them away: this week he ordered the creation of a new taskforce to fight identity theft. But the message, it seems, has yet to get through to his staff.
Until this week, it seemed that even Johnny Lechner had accepted the seasoned insight that all good things must come to an end. The 29-year-old had become a minor celebrity in the United States for having been an undergraduate for 12 years; he had appeared on television talkshows and landed a book deal.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took his third oath of office on Friday, formally extending his 21-year rule in an inauguration ceremony held amid concerns about his commitment to democracy. Museveni, who first came to power in a 1986 coup but has been elected three times since, enters his third term facing a series of weighty challenges.
European Union leaders bluntly criticised Bolivia and Venezuela’s protectionist energy policies at summit talks of 58 European and Latin American leaders on Friday. Summit host Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel reminded the two countries that open markets were key to promoting economic growth and prosperity — a key issue at the meeting.
Up to 200 people died on Friday when an oil pipeline blew up at a beach village near the Nigerian economic capital, Lagos, a police officer at the scene said. An Agence France-Presse correspondent at the scene reported seeing scores of carbonised, disfigured corpses floating on the water.
A strike by security guards from the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) will continue, the union warned on Friday. ”Satawu is not prepared to call off the strike. We are prepared to suspend the strike if the employers return to the negotiating table,” Satawu general secretary Randall Howard told a press briefing.
In 1824 an English bricklayer named Joseph Aspdin rediscovered one of the great secrets of the ancient world. Burning limestone and clay together at an incredible heat — more than 1 482°C — made the two minerals fuse together. Once cooled and ground into a fine ash, the resulting substance would, after mixing with water, set as hard as the Portland stone that gave it its name.
Rafael Nadal clinched his 50th successive victory on clay in Rome on Thursday with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Britain’s Tim Henman to reach the Rome Masters quarterfinals as he closed in on Guillermo Vilas’s all-time record on the surface. If Nadal successfully defends his title on Sunday, he will equal the record set by Argentine Vilas who managed 53 straight wins on clay in 1977.