London

A British sailor made waves in a round-the-world yachting competition on Tuesday when he used his radio to propose to his sweetheart, who is also a rival competitor. The famously rough seas at Cape Horn, on the southern tip of South America, did nothing to dampen the ardour of Graham Thompson (31) who asked 30-year-old girlfriend Laura Alexander the crucial question.

Rich nations need to do much more to overcome global poverty, Oxfam said on Monday in a report aimed at influencing Britain’s turn at the helm of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations. In a report, Paying the Price, the development charity said foreign aid budgets now are half what they were in 1960, while poor countries face debt repayments of -million.

Governments in Western Europe inclined to criticise Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interference in neighbours such as Ukraine or abuses in Chechnya may have second thoughts in future as their energy dependency grows. American qualms about the Kremlin’s authoritarianism or its support for Iran may be more readily suppressed when Russia’s position as the world’s second-largest oil exporter is factored in.

A major British union Friday threatened a strike over the case of a hospital porter who refuses to tuck in his shirt in contravention of the dress code. The GMB union, which claims 600 000 members and is the product of union mergers over recent years, characterised as ”pathetic” the action of the private company which employs the porter.

Britain will give priority to tackling global poverty, climate change and the Aids epidemic when it assumes the presidency of the Group of Eight nations in the second half of 2005, the government said on Thursday. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told parliament that Britain would ”make its G8 presidency count to meet the needs of the developing world.”

Britain said on Wednesday it believed kidnapped aid worker Margaret Hassan was likely dead, even though dental records proved a body found in Iraq wasn’t hers.
The Foreign Office said dental tests were conducted on a mutilated body found in Fallujah by United States marines, who believed it was that of a Western woman.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged Britain to increase pressure on the government of President Robert Mugabe to ensure fair elections in March. He also said the MDC will decide in two or three weeks whether it will participate in the elections. ”We have not yet finalised a decision. We will consider all options, including that of participation and non-participation.”

Adults who encourage children to believe in Santa Claus are helping to foster their moral development, a British child psychiatrist said in a study published on Wednesday. In the December issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin, psychiatrist Lynda Breen wrote that the belief that Father Christmas ”knows if you’ve been bad or good” helps teach children the difference between right and wrong.

In one of their more delicate rulings of recent years, British television watchdogs ruled Monday that a pig sexually pleasured on television by a minor celebrity did not feel degraded by the experience. Dozens of viewers complained about the episode in so-called reality television show The Farm, in which a series of celebrities were sent to do tough work with agricultural crops and animals.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela met British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Friday to discuss the British leader’s personal project to spearhead development activities in Africa. Mandela, 86, had an hour of discussions with Blair at Downing Street on Friday morning, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office told reporters.

One of the more unusual medals awarded during World War II — given to a carrier pigeon parachuted into occupied France alongside British agents — is to be sold, auctioneers said on Friday. Commando the pigeon was awarded the Dickin Medal, of which only 60 have ever been handed out, after bringing back secret information strapped to his leg on three missions.

There are not too many ex-prisoners whose arrival in a room brings 250 journalists to their feet in a standing ovation. And there are not too many 86-year-olds who can summon a supergroup of some of the world’s best-known musicians to help them launch a book.

A mysterious carved code at a British manor house, which has defied understanding for hundreds of years, is thought to be a cryptic message from an 18th century Christian sect, the Priory of Sion, experts said on Thursday. The marble tablet, commissioned in 1748, features a carved image with the letters ”DOUOSVAVVM” underneath.

Former Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne wrestled with a burglar on Monday at his rural English home before the intruder and an accomplice made off with up to â,¬1,4-million, (R10.9-million) worth of jewellery, police said. Ozzy, 55, discovered one of the thieves around 4am in his wife Sharon’s dressing room, at their massive house near Chalfont Saint Peter, south England.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader took his campaign against President Robert Mugabe to Britain on Sunday, rallying expatriates and declaring their destitute southern African country ready for ”regime change”. ”We want regime change in Zimbabwe. But we want regime change by through the ballot, not the bullet,” said Morgan Tsvangirai, the head of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).