Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty. ”My life is a disaster today. I could be killed by my family to restore their honour,” he says.
The recent bomb blasts in the popular tourist city of London has forced countries around the world to examine their own ability to prevent similar attacks. Institute for Security Studies analyst Anneli Botha says a distinction has to be made between domestic and international terrorism.
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One of the world’s biggest mining companies has been given permission to open up an enormous mine on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar which will involve digging up some of the world’s most unique forest. The decision has outraged campaigners at Friends of the Earth, who had opposed the plans from the outset.
Pressure is building on Wallaby coach Eddie Jones leading into one of the most important weeks on the Australian rugby calendar with the traditional Bledisloe Cup Test against rivals New Zealand. It all went sour for Jones on a disastrous two-Test tour to South Africa last month, highlighted by the sending home of reserve scrum-half Matt Henjak for disciplinary reasons.
Ethiopian teen Tirunesh Dibaba is confident of sewing up a historic double after running a breathtaking final lap to win the women’s 10Â 000m world title here at the World Athletics Championships. The 19-year-old, who was the youngest ever world champion over the 5 000m in Paris 2003, will attempt to become the first woman to win the two races when she competes in the 5km event later this week.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma expressed her condolences, on behalf of President Thabo Mbeki, on Sunday at the death of British Labour Party MP Robin Cook (59). ”The people of South Africa have indeed lost a dear friend and a hero,” she said.
A Russian mini-submarine that was trapped for nearly three days under the Pacific Ocean surfaced on Sunday with all seven people aboard alive after a British remote-controlled vehicle cut away the undersea cables that had snarled it. All seven aboard the AS-28 mini-submarine appeared to be in satisfactory condition, naval spokesman Captain Igor Dygalo said.
A Tunisian airliner heading for an emergency landing in Sicily ditched into rough seas off the Mediterranean island, and at least 13 of the 39 people aboard died, Italian authorities and airline officials said. Some of the 23 survivors clung to the wing or fuselage as they screamed to rescuers.
Businessman and ANC funder Sandi Majali on Saturday lost a desperate bid to stop the Sunday Times from publishing an article about his background, the newspaper said. Majali, CEO of Imvume Management, the company at the centre of the Oilgate debacle, tried to interdict the paper from publishing details of his youth and photographs of his family home in the Eastern Cape.