Thousands of Indonesians, already shaken from an earthquake last month, were evacuated from the slopes of a trembling volcano as it threatened to spark a second emergency on Wednesday. More than 15 000 people have been whisked from the slopes of Mount Merapi, which has been on red alert since May 13.
Nigerian separatist group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the kidnapping of five South Korean oil workers and offered to exchange them for the group’s jailed leader. Mend said the raid was a response to a court decision Tuesday to deny bail to the Niger Delta’s best-known guerrilla leader, Mujahid Dokubo Asari.
Michael Schumacher hopes to complete a German sporting double in the British Grand Prix on Sunday. The seven-time world drivers’ champion lags 21 points behind Fernando Alonso in the drivers’ championship following the Spaniard’s fourth win of the year in the Monaco Grand Prix.
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Portugal’s World Cup rivals will be making a huge mistake if they write off Luis Figo as a has-been, teammate Simao Sabrosa said on Wednesday. Figo is now 34 and has been widely written off despite a glittering club career with the likes of Sporting Lisbon, Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Jazz pianist and composer Hilton Ruiz, who came to New Orleans to work on a Hurricane Katrina benefit recording, died early on Tuesday, his agent and manager said. He was 54. Ruiz had been comatose at a hospital since he fell early no May 19 in front of a French Quarter bar.
The dribble of voters casting their ballots for the Western Cape’s only by-election being contested in Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plain, was expected to increase when people returned home from work on Wednesday. The by-election is seen as a two-horse race between Democratic Alliance candidate Sheval Arendse and the Independent Democrats’ June Frans.
European leaders stepped up the pressure on Tuesday on shareholders in Paris-based stock market operator Euronext to agree to merge with Frankfurt’s Deutsche Boerse. Last week the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext signed off on a -billion merger paving the way for the first trans-Atlantic stock market.
United States stocks dropped for the second straight session on Tuesday, with the
Dow Jones industrial average falling to its worst close since March 9. Global markets also sold off as inflation fears worsened. The Dow lost more than 110 points in midday trading before narrowing its loss later in the session.
Australian researchers have grown beating heart tissue in the laboratory in a world-first breakthrough that could lead to the creation of entire human organs, scientists said on Wednesday. The team of scientists and surgeons said their work aimed to grow organs, including parts of the heart, using patients’ own stem cells to avoid the problems of immune system rejection of transplanted organs.
They have long been viewed as a symbol of fidelity and everlasting love. But swans are in fact cheating philanderers who regularly flee the nest for extramarital sex, Australian researchers revealed on Wednesday. DNA testing has shown that one in six cygnets is the product of an illicit encounter, smashing the monogamous image of the birds.