No image available
/ 9 December 2003
Rock and television star Ozzy Osbourne is in intensive care after a quad bike accident at his English country home. The long-haired, 55-year-old heavy metal star will always be remembered for his on-stage exploits in Des Moines, Iowa, when in a wild moment he bit the head off a live bat thrown on stage by a fan.
No image available
/ 4 December 2003
Interpol said on Thursday it has issued an international arrest warrant for Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president living in exile in Nigeria, following a request from a United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone. Taylor is wanted on charges of crimes against humanity and ”grave breaches” of the Geneva Convention.
No image available
/ 4 December 2003
A weather alert was lifted on Thursday after floods and storms ravaged southern France, leaving five dead. Around the country’s second city Marseille, which was declared a disaster zone on Wednesday as a result of torrential rain and winds of up to 150kph, thousands of people were returning to their homes.
No image available
/ 1 December 2003
British astronomers say that Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky, has a planetary system that is closer to our own solar system than any other so far discovered. ”Although we can’t directly observe the planets, they have created clumps in the dust around the star,” said astronomer Mark Wyatt.
No image available
/ 19 November 2003
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday called for the signatories of a French-brokered peace accord for Côte d’Ivoire to come back to the negotiating table, amid fresh chaos in the West African state. ”The process of negotiation needs to be resumed because objectively, there’s a problem,” Mbeki said in France.
No image available
/ 16 November 2003
A crowded, day-old gangway leading to the world’s largest cruise ship, the Queen Mary II, has collapsed, sending workers and family members on a special tour plunging to their deaths. At least 13 people were killed and 32 others injured, including 10 who were hospitalised in a serious condition.
No image available
/ 16 October 2003
Hermes, a large asteroid that skimmed by the Earth in 1937 but has never been seen again, has been spotted once more after years of effort by astronomers. Hermes created a stir when it flew by close to the Earth in October 1937 at a distance of less than a million kilometers.
The August heatwave kindled the love light in the beds of southwest France. Oyster beds, that is, and the result is an unprecedented baby boom of 100-billion larvae. ”This record explosion is the result of the summer’s exceptional weather conditions. Reproduction has been especially abundant,” said an official.
Faced by a slump in sales in the first half of the year, Beaujolais winegrowers who depend on exports for around half their turnover, are hoping that forecasts of an exceptional 2003 harvest will come true.
When Rajery picks up his valiha, a long zither-like string instrument made of bamboo, he aims to teach the audience as much about the difficulties of getting dinner on the table in Madagascar as he wants to entertain them.
The anti-globalisation movement’s alternative summit opened on Thursday in the south-eastern French town of Annemasse with a challenge to the legitimacy of this weekend’s G8 summit in nearby Evian.
A French biologist voiced concern this week that the combination of Aids and severe acute respiratory syndrome will lead to terrible loss of lives.
Cookbooks might be the biggest-selling form of non-fiction ahead of health and gardening, but the well-thumbed and tomato-spattered favourite remains a rarity.
A judge has taken legal action against Cogema, a state-run nuclear fuels processor, for allegedly polluting streams and rivers in central France.
A top United Nations envoy on Monday called on member nations to reach a viable agreement on sustainable development at the upcoming Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
One of Italy’s most wanted mafia bosses has been convicted in a southeastern French court for holding fake identity papers, judicial officials said.