Foreign

Iraq claims thousands of casualties in blitz
NEW YORK -- Thousands of people were killed or wounded in four days of US and British air strikes on targets in Iraq, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Nizar Hamdoon, said yesterday. "I'm told that the casualties are in the thousands in te...

Clinton to be impeached in historic move
WASHINGTON -- President Bill Clinton became the first US president in 130 years to be impeached on Saturday, in a dramatic climax to a sex-and-perjury scandal that could lead to his dismissal. But in a White House address to the nation after the ...

US faces worst crisis since Watergate
WASHINGTON -- After an improbable week that left power vacuums in two branches of government, stunned Americans wondered what would happen next as the nation faces its worst political crisis since Watergate. Few Americans expect that the first pr...

Defiant Iraq claims victory after blitz
BAGHDAD -- A defiant Iraq proclaimed victory yesterday after Britain and the United States declared the aerial blitz was over, but warned that military force was still an option to contain Saddam Hussein. "Iraq has emerged victorious," said a son...

DOWN MEMORY LANE
A masked driver re-enacts the first drive taken by an almost identical Renault car in 1898 in the Montmartre in Paris to celebrate a century of production on Saturday. (AP) Eastern Cape   South Africa&n...

New butterfly found in Austria
INNSBRUCK-- A new species of butterfly with a wing span of more than three centimetres has been discovered in Austria, the Austrian news agency APA reported on Saturday. The "scotopteryx ignorata" had not been identified until now because there ...

German archaeologist finds Ramses II's palace
CAIRO -- The 3 250-year-old palace of Pharaoh Ramses II has been discovered under 60 centimetres of Nile River mud, and the find appears to demonstrate that the ancient Egyptians lived even more sumptuously than had previously been believed. Head...

Battles threaten peace accord
LUANDA -- Rebel forces in Angola eased their offensive on Kuito yesterday and reportedly moved southward to crack the government's hold on another provincial town. Unita rebels were proceeding south from Kuito to Chitembo, about 650 kilometres so...

Congo rhinos threatened
NAIROBI -- A recent attack on rangers in Garamba National Park in war-torn north-eastern Congo led conservationists to warn last week that the last of the world's northern white rhinos that live there are threatened with extinction. Three rangers...

Balloon crew braves storms
PARIS -- After braving a night of fierce thunderstorms, British tycoon Richard Branson and his crew soared over Central Asia yesterday, heading for the Himalayas on day three of their historic attempt to circle the globe in a balloon. "Somebody w...

Time names its 'men of the year'
WASHINGTON -- Time magazine named President Bill Clinton and his nemesis, independent counsel Kenneth Starr, as its men of the year in this week's edition. The cover shows a determined-looking Mr Clinton casting a shadow over a bespectacled Mr St...