Updated: 8am GMT -- 2005/11/24

Foreign

Chic black toilet paper a popular choice
UPSCALE bathrooms across Europe can now choose a chic new shade of toilet paper - basic black. Portuguese paper producer Renova introduced its line of black toilet paper in Spain and Portugal over the summer, and earlier this month the line becam...

Africa's first woman president elected
ELECTION officials yesterday confirmed Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as the winner in Liberia's post-war elections, making her Africa's first-ever elected female president. "Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, having received the highest number of votes in the ru...

Kenyan president dismisses his entire Cabinet
PRESIDENT Mwai Kibaki dismissed his entire Cabinet yesterday, a day after Kenyans rejected a constitution he had backed, and said he would announce a new Kenyan government in two weeks. The referendum on Tuesday dealt a blow to Kibaki's govern...

Thousands flee Katanga after offensive
MORE than 60000 people have fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo's southeastern province of Katanga after an offensive by government troops, aid workers and church sources said yesterday. The bishop of Kilwa-Kasenga, whose dioce...

Successful Zimbabwe dairy farm taken over
Homestead besieged by new land owners, police and district officials A HIGH court judge and a businessman have claimed part of a Danish-owned farm south of Harare, in a stepped-up drive to seize white-owned land for black Zimbabweans, the owne...

In Brief.......
Woman farmer is third person to die of bird flu in China A WOMAN farmer in east China has died from bird flu after contact with sick poultry, becoming the third confirmed human case in the country, state media reported yesterday. The 35-year-old...

Ugliest dog dies
THE dog known as the world's ugliest has died just short of its 15th birthday. Sam was a pedigreed Chinese crested terrier, whose hairless body, crooked teeth and wart-covered face had won him numerous ugly dog contests. He was put down at th...