World news round-up
Life on Mars?
Hard photographic evidence has confirmed for the first time the presence of water ice on the surface of the earth's closest neighbour, and the faintest traces of water vapour and ozone have also been detected in the upper atmosphere. The findings of Opportunity, an American space probe, have re-ignited scientific hopes of discovering remains of life on the planet.
That's just not cricket!
The scheduled tour of the England cricket team in Zimbabwe this November is likely to be cancelled, as the Foreign Office comes under increasing pressure from the Conservative party to ban the controversial fixture. Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram voiced the concerns of countless others when he argued that the tour would "give succour not only to the regime but also directly to Robert Mugabe."
Watch the Birdie
UN Health officials are warning that avian flu could potentially prove more dangerous and deadly than the recent and ongoing SARS epidemic. Cases of bird flu have been reported throughout South-East Asia, and the virus has so far claimed at least six lives in Vietnam, as well as a suspected death in Thailand. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Thailand is under heavy criticism for successfully concealing the presence of the disease there for almost a fortnight.
Progress in Libya
Events have moved quickly since the Libyan Prime Minister promised to dismantle the country's destructive weapons programme in December of last year. Now the first US congressional delegation has arrived in Libya, in an outward sign of the new working relationship between the two states. Nonetheless, American sanctions on the North African nation have yet to be lifted, with George Bush claiming no intention of doing so in the near future, despite the fact that all UN sanctions have now been removed.
Swap Shop
An exchange of prisoners was agreed at the weekend between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Under the deal, Israel will initially return around 30 Arab detainees to Lebanon, with hundreds more to follow, once they have secured the safe release of an Israeli businessman and the return of three Israeli bodies.
WMD: The never-ending story
As growing numbers of prominent politicians on both sides of the Atlantic question the justification behind the war in Iraq, the search for weapons of mass destruction seems ever more futile. US Secretary of State Colin Powell this week conceded that Iraq might not have had any stocks of WMD before America went to war last year, whilst David Kay, who led the unsuccessful search, has resigned after eight months. Meanwhile in the UK Tony Blair has also come under fresh pressure from his former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to admit that he too was wrong.
Iowan election upset
Despite disappointment in the recent Iowa caucus, Howard Dean, the Vermont governor, has met with greater success online, as the 'Dean Scream', recorded in Iowa and enhanced by a background dance beat, has become an unlikely web hit. Wesley Clark, another Democrat hopeful, was a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College in the late 1960s.
And finally...
A South African designer has won an award for his latest invention... a refrigerated coffin, or 'porto-morgue', as the mobile mortuary is affectionately known. The contraption is able to preserve bodies for up to a month, long enough for families to prepare traditional funerals for AIDS victims.
29th Jan 2004