Both Sudanese rebel groups fighting in Darfur refused on Friday to sign a peace deal with the Khartoum government, their chief negotiators said, despite intense pressure from international mediators. Mohammed Tugod of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said that the African Union draft peace accord failed to answer his group’s demands for Darfur’s three states to be united into a single autonomous region.
It took two and a half months, but finally there was a week of Super 14 rugby where all five South African teams were competitive. Springbok coach Jake White must be thankful for small mercies, for a number of his favourites are finally hitting their straps a month ahead of the international season. Imagine if they’d peaked in February and faded in June?
The booming Gulf city state of Dubai will add another feather in its cap with the construction of the world’s longest hotel strip at a cost of $27-billion, developers said. Bawadi" will feature 31 hotels, many theme-based, offering more than 29Â 000 rooms projected to host 3,3-million guests by 2016.
With its unpaved roads often strewn with litter, the Cova da Moura slum on the outskirts of Lisbon has long been seen as Portugal’s byword for crime and decay — and a place to be avoided. But a local youth group is offering guided tours of the community in the hope of improving its reputation and bringing much-needed business to area shops and restaurants.
The two Boeremag members who escaped from the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday are no strangers to life on the run. Herman van Rooyen (33) and Rudi Gouws (28) eluded police for more than two months before they were among the last of 22 alleged right-wing coup plotters arrested in December 2002.
It has soft lights, gleaming red and blue surfaces and a soothing video projection on the wall showing swirling underwater bubbles. Welcome not to an art hotel but to Europe’s most expensive public toilet. The super-loo, which opened on Thursday in Berlin, is the last word in chic public architecture and comes with a disabled lift, a unisex baby changing area and 24-hour reception. Entrance is 50 cents.
The United States Vice-President, Dick Cheney, on Thursday accused Russia of using blackmail and intimidation in its energy policy towards Europe. In one of Washington’s sharpest rebukes to Moscow, Cheney said it was not acceptable for Russia to use its vast gas and energy supplies to bully its neighbours.
In news that will either gladden or enrage non-billionaires everywhere, Bill Gates has revealed that he would rather not be the world’s richest man. ”I wish I wasn’t … There’s nothing good that comes out of that,” the co-founder of Microsoft told a conference of online advertising executives in Redmond, Washington, where the software company has its headquarters.
Judges tend to see male writers as the more authoritative and safer choice, writes Natasha Walter.
Claudia B Braude attends a sneak preview of composer Phillip Miller’s TRC Cantata.