The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Tuesday declared its full support for Thursday’s planned strike action by public sector workers and urged all workers to join the strike. ”Their action is fully justified given the intransigent attitude of the government towards the reasonable and justified demands of the workers,” Cosatu said.

Venetians may no longer wake up to the dulcet tones of ”just one cornetto” as the mayor of Venice plans to ban serenaders on gondolas during the morning rush hour in an effort to stop collisions on increasingly congested waterways. A recent spate of serious boat crashes — one in which a baby almost drowned — has forced the issue of traffic control to the top of the Venice authorities’ agenda.

Prominent widows of the September 11 2001 terror attacks endorsed John Kerry’s run for the presidency on Tuesday, accusing President George Bush of betrayal and of leading the country into a state of permanent war. ”The truth is, after watching the Republican convention in New York, I am scared. I am scared of the mentality,” said Kirsten Breitweiser, the most celebrated of the self-styled Jersey Girls.

Ariel Sharon has threatened that Yasser Arafat will meet the same fate as Hamas leaders who were assassinated earlier this year by the Israeli military. In ambiguous comments to Israeli newspapers to mark the Jewish new year, the prime minister said he intends to force the Palestinian leader into exile. But he also hinted that Arafat might be killed.

Lying amid the debris strewn near Al-Karkh police station was the photo of a young man in a blue T-shirt. The passport snap had been part of his application to join Iraq’s police force. On Tuesday, he and dozens of other recruits queueing outside the station in central Baghdad were blown to pieces by a car bomb. Near the photo, someone had heaped the shoes of the dead and injured into a neat pile.

Did you know that the Coca Cola company in the mid-1930s was failing in its attempts to market Coke in the Third Reich, because of the growing Nazi anti-American sentiment — and so the German wing of Coke created a special Aryan-friendly drink called "Fantasie" — shortened to "Fanta". So, all of you Fanta guzzlers consider that the orange-tasting muck you drink comes to you direct from Hitler’s Third Reich.

It was a sad day when listeners of SAfm that used to market itself as one for the well-informed, praised high-handed police action in Intabazwe, Harrismith, that led to scores of injuries and the death of a 17-year-old youth. Listeners who made time to call in suggested there was no price too high for the maintenance of law and order. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but here’s what makes me uneasy.