Mass protests demanding legalisation of undocumented migrants has bolstered United States Latinos, but it is too early to know if they can muster voters in upcoming elections. The giant pro-immigrant rallies across the United States have been led by members of the 40-million strong Hispanic community, the country’s largest ethnic minority.
Zimbabwe’s government has said aid agencies do not have permission to compile food production forecasts after some organisations projected the country faced a huge grain deficit, local reports said on Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made complained that aid organisations were conducting ”backdoor assessment exercises”.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has issued a spring tide warning ahead of the full moon on Thursday, advising people to take care everywhere along the South African coast. Swells would be stronger than usual, and deep-sea fishermen and seafarers, sailers, paddlers, surfers, bathers, anglers and recreational boaters should take special precautions, said an institute spokesperson.
Relatives on Wednesday began burying the dead from a suspected suicide bombing at a religious gathering in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi as the death toll rose to at least 57. Police and paramilitary forces were put on high alert after the blast blew up dozens of people — including top leaders of a religious organisation, Jamaat-e-Ahle Sunnat.
The subversion trial of Chinese dissident Li Jianping opened on Wednesday in eastern China’s Shandong province, with the writer accused of posting pro-democracy articles on the internet. Li (40) a businessman and writer, was arrested in May last year after posting essays advocating greater democracy on the internet.
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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma will spend his 64th birthday in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday as he defends himself on a charge of rape. His birth date was revealed when he was sworn in for his testimony last week. Zuma is accused of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive family friend at his home in Johannesburg on November 2 last year. He claims they had consensual sex.
”Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed,” French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously said three and half centuries ago. Today, it would cost Egypt’s ancient queen and beauty as little as to get a nose job in her native country, but specialists and disfigured patients might advise her against it.
The trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Wednesday for a brief ten minute session without the deposed leader or any of the other seven defendants present. Chief Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman adjourned the session to April 17 after the shortest session of the trial since it began in October.
Wallabies lock Hugh McMeniman will miss Australia’s midyear rugby internationals, including the Tri-Nations series against New Zealand and South Africa, because of a shoulder injury. McMeniman (22) said on Wednesday he will undergo surgery to repair the injury and related nerve damage, and will not be available for international selection.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and footballer George Weah, her main rival in the country’s recent elections, met on Monday to discuss ”peace and stability”, the government announced on Tuesday. It was the first time Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf had met for face-to-face talks