Foreign

Zim militants arrested over attacks on firms
HARARE -- Riot police sealed off a ruling party office yesterday, saying they were flushing out bogus militants suspected of raiding companies, businesses and aid agencies. The provincial ruling party building here had become a rallying point in ...

Aids could slash life expectancy to under 45 ­ UN
GENEVA -- HIV has infected 60 million people to date, and the HIV-Aids epidemic threatens to slash life expectancy in parts of Africa to less than 45 years, top UN officials yesterday. "Let us not fool ourselves -- Aids is here to stay for many y...

Burundian army 'killed 400 civilians'
BUJUMBURA -- More than 1200 civilians were killed last year in in Burundi by security forces and two Hutu rebel groups, the country's human rights league, Iteka, said in a report released yesterday. "The deaths of more than 700 people are attribu...

Hope fades for trapped cavers
GOUMOIS, France -- Hope was fading yesterday that eight Swiss cave explorers trapped nearly 24 hours in an underground chasm would be found alive, the television station LCI reported. 200 rescuers were working against time to reach the eight, sur...

Anti-globalist pelts Clinton with eggs
WARSAW -- Former US President Bill Clinton was pelted with eggs here yesterday after arriving from Austria to lecture Polish businessmen and politicians on globalisation. He was hit by eggs while strolling through the city prior to his evening le...

Iranian MPs die in crash
TEHRAN -- An aircraft carrying Iranian Transport Minister Rahman Dadman, two deputy ministers and seven members of parliament crashed yesterday in eastern Iran, apparently killing all aboard, officials said. Thirty-two people were reported to be ...

London mum claims record for tiniest baby
LONDON -- A woman here gave birth in November to the world's tiniest baby, small enough to hold in the palm of one hand, Britain's Guardian daily reported yesterday. Christopher Williams is to be entered in the Guinness Book of Records after weig...

Thirsty hedgehogs getting sozzled on tubs of beer
BRITAIN -- Britain's wild hedgehogs are getting tipsy by availing themselves of tubs of beer that gardeners leave out overnight to trap slugs, an animal welfare group said yesterday. Kay Bullen, a trustee of the British Hedgehog Preservation Soci...

No respite for Pope on 81st birthday
ROME -- Pope John Paul II plans to spend his 81st birthday today doing what he does most: working. Unlike last year, when he feted his 80th in the company of thousands of priests and the London Symphony Orchestra, the pope has no major celebratio...

John Prescott's punch sparks debate
LONDON -- Candidates in the national election campaign routinely talk of fighting for Britain's people, but one politician is in hot water for taking the battle directly to a voter's jaw. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, encountering a rowdy ...

RIGHTING WRONGS:
Young people from all over the world help repair a vandalised Jewish cemetery near the former Auschwitz death camp yesterday. About 300 youths repositioned overturned tombstones and tidied up the cemetery in Oswiecim, Poland, which was vandalised ...

ROYAL JEST:
Dutch Prince Constantijn and his bride Ms Laurentien Brinkhorst share a joke during their civil wedding in The Hague yesterday. The prince, who is the youngest of Queen Beatrix' sons, and Ms Brinkhorst, daughter of the Dutch agriculture minister,...

SA, Mexico strengthen links
MEXICO CITY -- Deputy President Jacob Zuma emerged last night from a meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada in a buoyant mood that socio-economic and political relations between the two countries would produce results. "He (Quesada) h...