Foreign

Historic win for Bush in mid-term poll
WASHINGTON -- Republicans swept to control of the United States Congress yesterday, taking the Senate from the Democrats and solidifying their grip on the House of Representatives in historic gains midway through President George Bush's four-year ...

HIGH ALERT:
A military policeman stands in front of a banner in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The 16th Chinese Communist Party congress starts tomorrow, and security will be tightened up near the meeting venue. (AP) Eastern Cape&nbs...

Bank recalls lottery tickets
TAIPEI -- TaipeiBank has recalled 8,3 million lottery tickets after discovering a young man had managed to decode them and pick winners, a bank official said yesterday. The man had managed to crack the bar codes on the back of the Instant Happine...

Crash mars start of Ramadan
CAIRO -- Most Arab states began the Islamic month of Ramadan yesterday, following the official sighting of the new moon marking the beginning of the fast. One exception was the Gulf sultanate of Oman, where the start of Ramadan was set for today,...

Toll roads: caution advised
CAPE TOWN -- The parliamentary transport committee yesterday warned the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) to exercise caution when considering proposals for tolls on existing roads. Sanral was giving the committee a presentatio...

AU set to forge ties
PRETORIA -- President Thabo Mbeki expressed the hope yesterday that closer working relations could be fostered between the Association of South East Asian Countries and the African Union. "Both Africa and Asia, are faced with similar developmenta...

Survivor loses 30kg
RIO DE JANEIRO -- A man who fell into a 25 metre deep well survived for 37 days in the hole by drinking rain water, according to media reports yesterday. Ailton de Souza, 30, lost more than 30 kilograms before he was saved by a passing livestock ...

UK gays may adopt
LONDON -- Britain is to allow unmarried couples, including gays, to adopt children after the country's upper house of Parliament, the House of Lords, gave its surprise backing to a controversial Bill on Tuesday. The legislation was passed by 215 ...

China dams Yangtze
BEIJING -- The damming of the mighty Yangtze River was completed in southwest China amid great ceremony yesterday, marking another stage towards the completion of the controversial Three Gorges Dam project. In front of a flag-waving crowd of work...

Plane crash kills 20
LUXEMBOURG -- Twenty people were killed yesterday when a commuter plane carrying mostly German businessmen crashed in heavy fog as it prepared to land at Luxembourg airport. Only two people survived, including the pilot, officials said. The twin...

Zim slams US 'interference'
HARARE -- Zimbabwe accused the United States yesterday of threatening to forcibly intervene in emergency food distributions, war mongering and favouring the country's opposition. A government spokesman said a US official's reported statement that...