One survivor said it was like a thunderstorm that ”went crazy” as twisters ripped through rural North Texas, reducing homes to concrete slabs and killing three people, including a teenager cowering in the stairwell of his home. At least 26 homes were destroyed in the storms that hit late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday.
Critics complain the Bush administration once again dropped the ball by failing to cite China for a currency system they see as a prime culprit in the loss of millions of United States manufacturing jobs. The administration said in a report to Congress on Wednesday that China moves too slowly to reform its currency system, but isn’t technically a currency manipulator.
After a humiliating exit from the 2002 World Cup, a disappointing Euro 2004, and a lacklustre qualifying campaign, France are not exactly surfing a wave of optimism as they head to Germany. Which is strange, because any side boasting the likes of Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, David Trezeguet, Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele would normally be considered strong favourites for the title.
Togo’s euphoria at qualifying for their first World Cup was tempered by a dismal performance at the African Nations Cup which indicates they will struggle in Germany. The Togolese accounted for 2002 World Cup quarterfinalists Senegal in a huge upset but were brought down to earth with a resounding bump after failing to win a point in Egypt.
Mark ”Chopper” Read, the notorious self-confessed Australian hit man whose criminal exploits have inspired books and a movie, has now lent his name to a board game. Using bullet-shaped counters, players cavort through the criminal underworld, visiting brothels, attacking fellow gangsters, evading the police and finally making their way to the island state of Tasmania.
A remarkable meteorite the size of a beachball, found in heat-forged crystals in one of the world’s largest impact craters, may push back the boundaries of knowledge about space rocks. The 25cm fragment has been found in the Morokweng impact crater in north-west South Africa, where a massive object slammed into Earth around 145-million years ago.
Aboriginal flags will fly above Australian cricket venues on Friday as Australian cricket recognises the 138th anniversary of its first touring side to England, the 1868 aboriginal team, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Thursday. In what’s planned as an annual initiative, CA and most states and territories associations will fly the flag at their offices or grounds to honour the team.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel ”one day will vanish” as he ramped up his anti-Western rhetoric in a speech to university students in Jakarta. The Iranian president declared last October that the Jewish state should be ”wiped off the map”.
It appears that a number of travel authors are a little preoccupied with death. Your death. Just browse around your local bookstore and you’ll find <i>Getaway’s 1 001 Places to See Before You Die: Places To Go</i>, <i>Things To Do in Southern Africa</i> (Struik), <i>Michael Bright’s Natural Wonders You Must See Before You Die</i> (Cassell Illustrated).
A British aristocrat who escaped murder charges in Kenya after killing a game warden on his family’s ranch last year shot another man to death on the premises on Wednesday, police said. Thomas Cholmondeley, son of the Fifth Baron Delamere and great-grandson of Kenya’s most prominent early British settler, told authorities he fired at a suspected poacher on the ranch in the central Rift Valley.