As tomb raiders plunder Iron Age treasures — beads, gold ornaments and even the bones from burial mounds — archaeologists warn that Cambodia’s rich pre-Angkorian heritage will be completely lost within three years. Hundreds, if not more, of the 4Â 000 or so documented sites across the country have already been torn apart.
Striding through the smoke and flames threatening to torch the new Labour project, like a cornered action hero attempting a final comeback, Tony Blair recently showed once again why he is the most resilient politician in Britain. After days of coded revolt from his heir apparent he faced down his party with a powerful performance at his Downing Street press conference and at an evening session with MPs.
Six people were arrested in the Western Cape for their involvement in internet child pornography and possession of images, police said on Monday. Captain Elliot Sinyangana said the men were arrested as a result of an intensive police investigation which started in October last year.
The United States finally reacted to goading by the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, by slapping a full arms ban on the country on Monday night, claiming it had failed to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokesperson, said Venezuela had forged close relations with Iran and Cuba, both classified by the US as state sponsors of terrorism.
An unprecedented wave of attacks by a notorious drug gang in South America’s largest city, São Paulo, entered into its fourth day on Monday, with reports of at least 20 more killings that raised the death toll to more than 70. Masked gang members hurled grenades at police stations and sprayed them with automatic weapons over the weekend.
Giorgio Napolitano, sworn into office on Monday as Italy’s 11th president, is a former communist who, at the age of 80, is one of the country’s most-experienced politicians. The life senator and former speaker of the lower house Chamber of Deputies moves into the presidential Quirinale Palace for a seven-year term.
The managing director of Aon Re Africa has been elected president of the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA), Aon SA said on Monday. Simon Chikumbu was elected IISA president at the joint conference of the African Insurance Organisation and the IISA in Cape Town on Monday.
The South African Communist Party has denied intending to ”grill” Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils on his role in former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial. The party said on Monday it had noted a newspaper report about Kasrils’ attendance at this weekend’s central committee meeting and wanted to set the record straight.
The United States is to renew full diplomatic ties with Libya and take it off a list of states that back terrorism, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday. Rice called the resumption of relations the ”tangible results” of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi’s decision in 2003 to renounce terrorism.
The Kuwaiti Parliament broke up in chaos on Monday when reformist MPs walked out in protest at attempts to block a redrawing of constituencies intended to counter alleged vote-buying. The reformers left the session when voting began on a motion tabled by conservative and tribal MPs that sought to refer a government-backed Bill to the Constitutional Court.