Foreign

Palestinian hardliners draw up truce deal
GAZA CITY -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement have "agreed on" a truce document which will be released within the next few days. "There is a shared document, which reflects a shared position, and was agreed on by Hamas, Ji...

ANGELIC BEINGS
Three festival-goers dressed up as angels attend the Glastonbury festival yesterday. Overcast skies and the occasional showers greeted festival-goers, but the weather did nothing to detract from the festival spirit. (AP ) ...

BMW, Williams sign new five-year F1 deal
NUERBURGRING -- BMW and Williams patched up their differences yesterday, signing a new five-year contract that will extend their Formula One partnership to 2009. The German car firm had hinted at the Austrian Grand Prix that they were dissatisfie...

Swedes to help plan BC transport
By Martin Hofvenstam EXCITING TRANSPORT PLANS: Luvuyo Mosana (Buffalo City councillor) BC city manager Mxolisi Tsika, BC mayor Sindisile Maclean and Sithembiso Tyilo (BC councillor) pose with Maith Magnussen in the Swedish city of Gavle, which ...

Mbeki for Caribbean summit
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- President Thabo Mbeki will visit Jamaica this weekend to attend an annual summit of Caribbean leaders, the government said yesterday. Mbeki is scheduled to arrive tomorrow ahead of the 24th meeting of Caribbean Community head...

Daily News editor charged over cartoon
JOHANNESBURG -- Zimbabwean Daily News editor, Nqobile Nyathi, was arrested and charged under the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) on Thursday, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) reported yesterday. Misa spokeswoman Eva Johnsen said...

I Coast minister blockaded
ABIDJAN -- The leader of a rebel group which plunged the Ivory Coast into civil war was yesterday blockaded by an angry mob. Guillaume Soro, who is now the country's communication minister, was confronted at the national television station by ang...

Copycat Santa got chimney all wrong
NEW YORK -- Police here rescued and then arrested a red-faced burglar yesterday after he managed to get himself stuck in the chimney of the restaurant he was trying to burgle -- he had been there for three hours. Emergency personnel had to break ...

Paradise regained for heavyweights
THE WORLD'S first resort exclusively for the overweight has just opened. At Freedom Paradise in Cancun, Mexico, guests will find special reinforced beach chairs made of tree trunks, seven-metre sun loungers and dining chairs with 65cm seats. Oth...

Nigeria touts best All-Africa Games
LAGOS -- With 100 days to the eighth All-Africa Games in Abuja, local organisers have promised to stage the best ever games since the event began in 1965. "We are adequately prepared to organise the best ever All-Africa Games in history," said Am...

Three jailed for attack onSA tourists
BULAWAYO -- Three men have been convicted of murdering South African tourist Conan Thomas here last weekend. They were sentenced to 24 years in jail for robbing Thomas and his girlfriend at a picnic spot near the Zimbabwean city as well as for tw...

58th US soldier killed
BAGHDAD -- A United States soldier was killed in an ambush and another was shot in the face in Iraq yesterday in the latest attacks against coalition troops. Three Iraqis were also arrested in connection with the disappearance of two other Americ...

Police try MDC office search
HARARE -- Zimbabwe police yesterday attempted to search the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party for "subversive materials", an MDC official said. The official, who asked not to be named, said six officers led by a detec...

4 killed in Namibian SOS plane crash
WINDHOEK -- Four people, including two South Africans, were killed in Namibia on Thursday evening when an SOS medical rescue aircraft leaving the scene of a traffic accident crashed into a mountain. The regional medical director for SOS Internati...

World briefs
UN urges Castro to free rebels GENEVA -- The UN human rights representative for Cuba has appealed to President Fidel Castro to grant a reprieve to 50 Cuban dissidents after the high court upheld stiff sentences against them earlier in the week, t...