Foreign

Mbeki drums up UK investor confidence Blair vows to focus on Africa
LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking after talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki, promised yesterday that helping Africa achieve prosperity will be a priority of his second term in government. The two leaders met in Down...

GOT TO HAND IT TO HIM:
Jay Schiller plays the keyboard with a prototype bionic hand developed by bio-medical engineer William Craelius at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Schiller lost his hand in a railway accident in 1988. (AP) Eastern Cap...

T here's no place like home
THE house where John Lennon spent his childhood is going up for sale on the Internet, the family of its late owner said. Ernest Burkey, who lived in the house for 30 years, died last month at age 88. "I would prefer to see it bought by somebody ...

Leggy lawyer angers peers
RIMINI, Italy -- An Italian lawyer has enraged her traditionally sober colleagues by winning a beauty contest here. Lawyer Morena Ripa, 32, won the Miss Over contest a few nights ago thanks to her stunning legs. A group of lawyers has since sign...

Prince slew royals ­ commission
KATHMANDU -- Crown Prince Dipendra gunned down his father and Nepal's King Birendra and eight other members of the royal family in a shooting spree at the palace, the commission probing the massacre said yesterday. The report placed the blame for...

What a drag
SAN Francisco Chronicle executive editor Phil Bronstein said he hopes to be back at work this week after being attacked by a Komodo dragon at the Los Angeles Zoo. Bronstein's wife, actress Sharon Stone, arranged a private tour of the 7-foot-long ...

SA's Iraq aid mission denied entry to West Bank
AMMAN, Jordan -- South African activists who delivered medicines to sanctions-stricken Iraq were denied entry to the Palestinian West Bank yesterday, a move that grounded plans to pray at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque, the group and an Israeli spokes...

Sub reaches Bismarck wreck
BERLIN -- A team of researchers and filmmakers announced yesterday that a manned expedition had for the first time reached the wreck of the Bismarck, Nazi Germany's most powerful battleship, located 4750 metres below the waves of the North Atlanti...

Bush commits US to a prosperous Europe
GOTHEBURG, Sweden, -- George W Bush faced opposition yesterday over his rejection of a global warming treaty backed by most European nations -- and activists converging for protests. "We look forward to a constructive relationship," Bush said as ...