When Nigerian reporter Isioma Daniel heard that a <i>fatwa</i>, or Islamic ruling, had been issued against her, she "felt calm … then realised that there was no going back". "Was I scared? I didn’t sleep too well that night," she wrote in a February 2003 article published by <i>The Guardian</i> about her case.
An ambitious plan to reform the United Nations security council by expanding it from 15 members to 25 looks set to fail next week despite one of the most intense diplomatic lobbying exercises ever conducted, according to UN sources.
A partial building collapse spewed tonnes of rubble and timber on to a busy New York City sidewalk on Thursday, injuring at least four people and triggering an urgent search-and-rescue mission. The building was under demolition and surrounded by scaffolding when the collapse occurred.
A new United Nations agreement to track trade in arms is attacked on Thursday as toothless and riddled with loopholes by human rights groups which have seen a copy of the secret deal. The agreement, to be discussed at the UN on Thursday, excludes ammunition, shells and explosives.
Although Roger Waters dabbled with operatic themes in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, he’s never written a traditional opera — until now. Waters will debut Ca Ira (There Is Hope), his opera about the French Revolution, September 27 with a double-CD and DVD project from Sony Music.
Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for his role in the -billion fraud that drove the once high-flying American company into the largest bankruptcy in corporate history.
Former United States president Bill Clinton will embark on a week-long, six-nation African tour this weekend aimed at boosting the work of his foundation in combatting the scourge of HIV/Aids in the continent. Clinton will seek to ”reinvigorate political will” for scaling up HIV/Aids treatment programmes.
Dazzlingly white, perfectly aligned … and now with a touch of glamour: New York cosmetic dentists are offering smiles fit for a movie star. Recently, a semi-permanent prothesis — known as ”snap-in veneers” — has become available. Made of resin, the veneers are placed over patients’ teeth, allowing them to flash teeth like those of their favourite actor or actress.
A New York Times journalist was jailed for up to four months for contempt on Wednesday after she refused to reveal the source in an investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s name. Judith Miller was sent to a Washington DC jail for a term that will last until October, unless she relents and reveals her source.
Grammy award winner Luther Vandross, whose deep, lush voice on such hits as Here and Now and Any Love sold more than 25-million albums while providing the romantic backdrop for millions of couples worldwide, died on Friday. He was 54.
When it comes to churning out hits, most musicians stick to the same recipe that gave them sweet success the first time around. If a rapper’s shoot-em-up tales sold eight million albums, there’ll be more on the follow-up. If a starlet’s skimpy outfits and booty-shaking lured fans to the record stores five million times, count on similar apparel and moves the next time.
Time magazine warned of ”chilling” new limits on US press freedoms as it reluctantly agreed on Thursday to hand over a reporter’s notes to a grand jury probing the leak of a Central Intelligence Agency operative’s identity. The move was partly aimed at protecting a Time journalist who has been ordered to testify before the grand jury or face prison.
The Netherlands-based Mittal Steel, the world’s top steel maker, said on Wednesday that it plans to reduce its global steel production by one million tons in the third quarter of 2005, following similar cuts in the second quarter. The cuts will be equally split between Mittal’s North American operations and those in Europe and the rest of the world.
United States feminist Gloria Steinem was among a small group of protestors on Wednesday who sought to take the sparkle out of the gala opening in New York of South African diamond giant De Beers’ first US showroom. The protest, organised by the lobby group Survival International, picketed celebrities like Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan as they arrived at the event.
When Billy Graham came to preach in New York in 1957 his trip was regarded as ambitious, verging on foolhardy. Back then, New York was regarded as synonymous with sin — a hub for loose morals and fast living, luring and then corrupting the innocent from Middle America.
Plans by De Beers to expand its diamond retail empire with the opening of a new shop on Wednesday on Fifth Avenue in New York will be dogged by controversy after a human rights group called for a boycott. Survival International said it had enlisted the American feminist Gloria Steinem to join a picket line urging people not to enter the shop.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s controversial eviction of illegal dwellers will be studied by a United Nations envoy to see whether it has had a humanitarian impact on those affected by the measure, a UN spokesperson said on Monday.
With an income of -million, Oprah Winfrey is the world’s most powerful celebrity, according to Forbes magazine which placed the talk show queen at the top of its annual ranking of the 100 personalities with the biggest pull. In second place for the second year in a row, Tiger Woods pulls in -million.
Pre-orders for JK Rowling’s latest Harry Potter novel have exceeded half a million one month before the release of the sixth volume. A total of 568 000 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince have been ordered online and at American syndicated store sites, such as Borders.com, said online retailer Amazon.com.
A man’s leg and part of his torso fell from a South African Airways (SAA) jetliner on to a suburban New York home on Tuesday as the aircraft prepared to land at John F Kennedy airport, authorities and the airline said. More remains were found inside the wheel-well of the SAA aircraft when it landed at JFK, arriving from Johannesburg via Dakar, Senegal.
Killer rabbits, flatulent Frenchmen, giant knights who say ”Ni!” — it is the kind of daft British humour one would not expect to storm New York. But Spamalot, the musical based loosely on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, has romped home with the most prestigious prizes in this year’s Tony awards.
Oscar winning Hollywood star Russell Crowe was arrested in New York on Monday and charged with assault after allegedly hurling a telephone at a hotel employee, a police spokesperson said. Police were called to the swanky Mercer Hotel in SoHo, downtown Manhattan at around 4.20am.
David Beckham and Michael Owen say they intend to stay with Real Madrid next season. The two stars joined the English national team in the United States on Monday, a day ahead of the exhibition game against Colombia that concludes a two-game tour. ”I’m happy in Real Madrid. I want to finish my career there,” said Beckham.
Dozens of the late United States movie star Marlon Brando’s personal effects will be auctioned on June 30 in New York, Christie’s said on Thursday. The property includes 250 articles from the Los Angeles home where he lived from 1960 until his death in July 2004, and is expected to bring more than -million, it said.
The iPod craze has spawned a crime wave in New York city subways. Police told the city transportation board on Wednesday that 50 iPods have been reported stolen on the subways so far this year, compared to none during the same period last year. Cell phone thefts have more than doubled to 165 from 82 last year.
Infinity Broadcasting, a terrestrial radio company whose business model is being challenged by the iPod phenomenon, is borrowing a page from its rival’s playbook. Next month, Infinity will convert an underperforming station in San Francisco to a format that will broadcast only ”podcasts,” or amateur recordings distributed via the internet that are intended for listeners’ iPods and other digital music players.
For his next stunt, American magician David Blaine says he’ll perform an ”easy and fun” high wire act in Manhattan on Halloween. ”Basically, it’s something that’s been done in the circuses, based on the old high-wire acts,” Blaine said on Tuesday. ”It’s like family entertainment, this one.”
Most Americans believe there is nothing wrong with openly gay male athletes participating in sports, but nearly 24% think an openly gay athlete would hurt their team, according to an NBC/USA Network poll. The mixed results of the survey on American attitudes toward gay athletes appear in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.
Formula-one champion Michael Schumacher, NBA All-Star LeBron James and sailor Ellen MacArthur are among five sportspeople who appear in Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. The eclectic list, which hits newsstands on Monday, ranges from the Dalai Lama to Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.
This is a tale of one war, two anniversaries, three different demonstrations — and inconsistencies, contradictions and civilian deaths that are too numerous to count. On April 18 2003, tens of thousands of Sunni and Shia protesters took to the streets of Baghdad to call for the Americans to leave Iraq. Two years later, the United States is still there, justifying occupation by embracing the irrelevant and ignoring the inconvenient.
In a case that could set limits on internet search engines, the French news agency AFP is suing Google for pulling together photos and story excerpts from thousands of news websites. Agence France-Presse said the Google News service infringes on AFP’s copyrights by reproducing information from the websites of subscribers of the Paris-based news wholesaler.
in could be hip-hop’s first Asian-American star — if racism doesn’t stop him. ”For the most part people think I’m like a myth, not a real person,” he says. He talks to Dorian Lynskey in New York.