Jacques Chirac is the most unpopular president of the Fifth Republic since pollsters began measuring the personal approval ratings of French politicians in 1978. As the country continued to writhe in anxiety, self-doubt and anger after its rejection of the EU Constitution, a poll showed Chirac’s popularity had plunged 16 points to 26%.
Zimbabwean police briefly detained an opposition legislator and his two aides on Wednesday, the eve of a mass two-day strike against a highly controversial urban clean-up campaign which has displaced several thousand people.
Insurgents in Iraq ended a brief spell of peace on Tuesday with a wave of attacks that killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens more. Four bombs exploded in and around the town of Hawija in the space of seven minutes in a coordinated assault on Iraqi security forces and Untied States troops.
Three people were injured on Wednesday when an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 737 made an emergency landing at Johannesburg International airport, an Airports Company South Africa spokesperson said. Jacqui O’Sullivan said the injured three were a pregnant woman, an epileptic and a passenger suffering from back pains.
Hopes of finding a long-lost work by Leonardo da Vinci have been fired by the discovery of a tiny cavity in a wall in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Leonardo is known to have begun a vast work, the Battle of Anghiari, on the same wall in 1505. A Florentine writer who saw it described it 44 years later as ”miraculous”.
Red-carpet treatment at the White House for Indonesia’s president and visits by the United States defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to Singapore and Thailand this week, are partly intended to shore up support in south-east Asia for Washington’s ”war on terror”.
It will be a veritable who’s who of South African soccer when a South African Invitation XI take on the Lucas Radebe All-Stars in a benefit game for the former Bafana Bafana captain and Leeds United stalwart at King’s Park Stadium in Durban on Saturday night. The provisional squads were announced on Tuesday.
The United States PGA Tour returns to the Congressional Country Club this week for the Booz Allen Classic, marking the first visit since South Africa’s Ernie Els captured his second major title in brilliant fashion in the memorable 1997 US Open. ”The memories are fond memories,” Els said on Tuesday.
United States scientists have increased the pressure on US President George Bush and other world leaders to tackle climate change by signing a joint statement calling on G8 nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The statement, from the science academies of the G8 countries, says the scientific evidence on climate change is now clear enough to compel their leaders to take action.
Quick-service restaurant group Famous Brands is confident of experiencing enough sustained demand to open 80 new restaurants per year on average across its franchises over the next three years, the company said in its 2005 annual report, published on Tuesday.