Mandela still unable to speak: ex-wife
Johannesburg: Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela remains “quite ill” and is using facial gestures to communicate with his family and doctors, the former South African President’s ex-wife has said. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said the 95-year-old leader was, however, not on life support but he was no longer talking “because of all the tubes that are in his mouth to clear (fluid from) the lungs”.
Jayant Patel’s trial costs Australia $3.6 mn
Melbourne: The seven year-long trial of Indian-origin surgeon Jayant Patel, accused of manslaughter of several patients in Australia, has cost the country a whopping 3.5 million dollars. Documents from the Queensland’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions show that the Government has spent 3,508,792 Australian dollars to pursue the range of charges against Patel from July 2006 until June 30, 2013, the Brisbane Times reported.
Death toll rises to 12 in Afghan bombing
Kabul: The death toll from a suicide vehicle bomb attack on the site of a key national council in Afghanistan’s Capital has risen to 12, officials said on Sunday. The Taliban meanwhile took credit for the blast the day before outside the huge tent where next week’s loya Jirga is to be held later this week.
Kerry to visit Israel on Friday: Netanyahu
Jerusalem: US Secretary of State John Kerry is to visit Israel on Friday to discuss the Iranian nuclear talks and peace with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Speaking to his ministers, Netanyahu said he would also discuss the Iran talks with French President Francois Hollande, who arrives in Israel on Sunday, as well as with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he travels to meet him in Moscow on Wednesday.
Powerful quake strikes far south Atlantic: USGS
Washington: A powerful 7.8 magnitude undersea earthquake struck in the Scotia Sea, a remote region in the far south Atlantic near Antarctica, US earthquake monitors reported on Sunday. The quake struck at 1434 IST in the ocean some 893 kilometers southwest of Grytviken, South Georgia, and 1,140 kilometers southeast of Ushuaia, Argentina, said the US Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes
worldwide.
Pentagon chief sounds alarm over US budget cuts
Simi Valley (US): Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel sounded an alarm bell about budget cuts he said threaten America’s security and global military role, while “gambling” over the risk of an unexpected threat. The cuts, which amount to nearly USD 1 trillion for the Department of Defence over a decade, were “too steep, too deep and too abrupt,” Hagel told a defence conference yesterday in California.
6 contractors found beheaded in Afghanistan
Kabul: Afghan police say the decapitated bodies of six Government contractors were found in a southern province, apparent victims of Taliban insurgents who regularly target state projects. Kandahar police spokesman Ahmed Durrani says villagers found the bodies today. He said the men were involved in building police compounds and checkpoints.
Thousands of Syrian refugees flood into lebanon
Beirut: Thousands of refugees are fleeing border towns in central
Syria where a high-stakes battle is raging, crossing valleys and
ridges to reach safety in neighboring lebanon, witnesses and
the UN said on Sunday. They packed into wedding halls and
drifted into makeshift shacks after escaping the steadily
intensifying fighting battle that began on Friday, said Bassel Hojeiri, former mayor of the border town of Arsal where most of the refugees have headed.
Nobel author Doris lessing dies at 94
london: Doris lessing, the Nobel prize-winning, free-thinking, world-traveling and often-polarising author of “The Golden Notebook” and dozens of other novels that reflected her own improbable journey across the former British empire, died on Sunday. She was 94. Her publisher, HarperCollins, said the author of more than 55 works of fiction, opera, nonfiction and poetry, died peacefully on Sunday.