New Zealand has suspended its diplomatic ties with Israel following the jailing of two suspected Israeli spies in Auckland on Thursday. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Thursday that a strong suspicion exists that the men were acting on behalf of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.
Listed South African banking group Standard Bank and associated financial services group Liberty Group have announced agreements which will see an effective 10% of Standard Bank’s South African banking operations and 10% of Liberty Life’s South African operations go to broad-based black groupings.
Thirteen people have been killed in two seperate car boms in Iraq. Ten people lost their lives in the first explosion in the northwestern city of Hadithah, while three suicide bombers were killed when their explosive-packed vehicle detonated near a military installation in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
Living in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, is getting harder as weary residents battle with frequent power cuts, water shortages and the ever-rising prices of basic goods. Harare once boasted the nickname ”Sunshine City” but in the depths of a Zimbabwean winter, it’s looking less and less that way for all residents.
Two Australian men, charged with chewing up and spitting out live mice in a pub competition, appeared in court on Thursday. The men face animal cruelty charges and could face fines of up to Aus,000 or two years in prison if they are convicted. The men were competing for a holiday valued at Aus.
Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand is hoping to pinpoint the gene sequences that inactivate the virus that causes hepatitis B, an illness carried by more than 380-million people worldwide, the university said on Thursday. Wits said that it is using new technology to try to stop hepatitis B from recurring in the body.
The United States Congress hopes that ,6-million will create enough incentive for drug companies to create enough vaccines and antidotes to protect Americans from chemical and biological attacks. The program, called Project BioShield, was passed on Wednesday and President George Bush’s endorsement is guaranteed.
The Jamuna River burst its banks and surged through 25 villages while residents slept in northern Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people as homes, crops and trees were washed away. About 10 000 villagers were washed out of their flimsy homes. The toll from monsoon flooding in Bangladesh and its neighbours has reached 339.
Think of Aids in Africa and the odds are that you do not visualise anything like the infectious-disease care clinic in Gaborone, Botswana — a place of life, not death. Several hundred patients turn up each day, and increasingly they come not on stretchers or in wheelchairs but on foot.
Marks and Spencer shares tumbled on Thursday after the British tycoon Philip Green dropped his proposed takeover offer for the group, ratcheting up the pressure on its new management to deliver results. The billionaire retail magnate abandoned a third informal offer for the century-old British retailer late on Wednesday.