Western powers will wait a ”couple of weeks” before pressing tough United Nations action against Iran and offer new incentives for it to renounce its controversial nuclear activities, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. Rice spoke after two days of intensive consultations on an approach to Tehran’s suspected effort to build a nuclear bomb.
A search for Alexandros T survivors continued on Wednesday, a week after the ship sank off South Africa’s south-east coast, the Greek embassy said. The tug Smit Amandla was still searching for 26 missing crew members on behalf of the ship’s owners, counsellor Dimitri Yannakakis said.
Russian tennis and merchandising phenomenon Maria Sharapova is due to take part on Thursday in what will be the world’s first beauty contest for ball boys. Sharapova, currently number three in the world tennis rankings, is to help at a casting session in Madrid for male models seeking jobs as ball boys at the city’s WTA Women’s Masters tournament in November.
China plans to build 48 new airports over the next five years in an aviation spending splurge that will delight architects and plane makers but heighten concerns among environmentalists. With the economy booming, hundreds of millions more journeys are being made by air every year, prompting a rush to buy planes that has made China the most important customer for Boeing and Airbus
Mickey Mouse’s genitals, plastic cats with Hitler moustaches, and a paint-flecked portrait of the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, were among the works on show on Tuesday as Paris’s modern art triennial opened amid controversy and picketing.
Police in London said on Wednesday they have arrested a 37-year-old man after a girl, aged 11, gave birth to a baby boy. The young girl, reportedly from an African country, went into labour at Hillingdon Hospital in West London on May 5. She and her baby have since been taken into the care of Hillingdon Borough Council.
America’s most notorious polygamous sect is being investigated as an organised-crime operation, it emerged on Tuesday, in one of several signs that the net is closing on the group’s fugitive leader. Warren Jeffs, the self-declared prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, joined Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s most-wanted list at the weekend.
An ammonia leak at a Vito ice-cream factory in Crawford resulted in more than 210 factory workers and schoolchildren being rushed to hospitals in Cape Town on Wednesday morning. Children from two primary schools in the area suffered discomfort to the eyes and experienced difficulty breathing, said principal Abubakr Jardine, from the Belthorn Primary School.
An Andy Warhol canvas portraying a can of Campbell’s Soup was auctioned off here for nearly ,8-million, Christie’s auction house reported late on Tuesday. The sale of Small Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Pepper Pot), a 1962 canvas, set a record for work from the artist’s Campbell’s Soup series.
Pressure built on Wednesday on Nigeria over attempts to give President Olusegun Obasanjo a third term in office by changing the Constitution, with United Nations chief Kofi Annan and the Economic Community of West African States weighing into the debate. African leaders should "play by the rules", the UN secretary general said in an interview.