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US man charged for shooting mower

Olly — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:11:28 +0000

A 56-year-old man from the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin has been arrested after shooting his lawn mower in his garden because it would not start.

Japan turns back clock to give new life to lost storks Asia, World The Independent

Olly — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:44:39 +0000

When Japan\’s last oriental white stork died in 1971 it was thought that the birds had disappeared forever. The wetlands where the stork nested had been irrigated, and development damaged its...

Found in river the real bust of Julius Caesar

Olly — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:15:03 +0000

The world has been introduced to the true face of Julius Caesar with the discovery in a river in southern France of a bust that was sculpted in the lifetime of the Roman leader.

The marble sculpture, found in the bed of the Rhône in the town of Arles, has been authenticated as a realistic likeness of Caesar, wrinkled and balding in his fifties and probably modelled from life.

“It is the only known bust of the living Caesar, except for the Mask of Turin, which was made just before or after his death, said Luc Long, the Ministry of Culture archaeologist who found it along with other treasures last autumn. “Even in Rome, no one has found a portrait of the living Caesar,” he added.

The bust, which has a broken nose, dates from between 49 and 46BC, the period when Caesar founded the Roman colony of Arles, to thank the town for helping him to conquer the nearby port of Marseille. Caesar used Arles as a base for his campaign against Pompey, his rival.

Sarkozy, Still in Shadow

Olly — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:04:41 +0000

During his successful campaign for the French presidency last year, Nicolas Sarkozy’s mantra was there must be “a rupture with the past.” For the country to flourish, he said, the French economy and its ponderous institutions need to change. As the son of a Hungarian immigrant and the grandson of a Greek from ThessalonikiSalonica, Sarkozy clearly is not bound by the same overweening attachment to tradition as his predecessors.

“Part of the French elite detests me a lot more than they detest Israel or the Americans,” Sarkozy told a delegation of Jewish leaders eight months before the election, according to playwright Yasmina Reza’s unusual diary of the campaign. The comment is particularly telling because Sarkozy, who has Jewish ancestry, is possibly the most pro-American, pro-Israeli president in France’s history.

Mbeki set for Mugabe talks

Olly — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:06:54 +0000

- South African President Thabo Mbeki, the chief regional mediator on the crisis in Zimbabawe, was due on Friday to make his first visit to Harare since the release of disputed election results.

Mbeki, widely criticised for his softly-softly approach towards his counterpart Robert Mugabe, was expected to meet the veteran Zimbabwean leader but it was not clear whether the opposition would also be on his itinerary.

“Mbeki will meet with the country’s political leadership in the context of his Southern African Development Community-mandated facilitation process,” said Ronnie Mamoepa, a South African foreign ministry spokesman.