Civil awards and decorations

Cuba faces vast land losses as sea levels rise

Agence France-PresseApril 11, 2013 16:00

Cuba risks losing a vast stretch of beach front homes and pristine coastal habitat by 2050, because of rapidly rising sea levels, a top environmental official warned Thursday. At a panel discussion on Cuban environmental policy, Tomas Escobar, director of the island's National Environment Agency, said rising oceans could submerge huge areas of the Caribbean island, with potentially devastating consequences.

Cuba faces vast land losses as sea levels rise

Agence France-PresseApril 11, 2013 15:46

In rare appearance, Fidel inaugurates school in Cuba

Agence France-PresseApril 11, 2013 10:01

Leaders inaugurating public works projects is a staple of Cuba, and a surprisingly spry-looking 86-year-old Fidel Castro has done it for the first time since stepping aside as president in 2006, media here reported on Thursday. The elder of the Castro brothers opened the Havana school for 140 children that he himself had asked be built, said the web site Cubadebate.cu. It showed photos of Castro dressed casually in a navy blue jacket and blue and white checked shirt, talking animatedly to children and adults.

New ballet scandal after Kiev theatre ousts dance chief

Agence France-PresseApril 11, 2013 08:01

The Ukraine National Opera house was embroiled in a farcical scandal Thursday after it ousted a star dancer from the post of ballet company chief on the grounds he never formally held the job. Denis Matviyenko, 34, a Ukrainian dancer who has also won fame and prizes abroad, said he had worked as the ballet's director for one-and-a-half years on a mission to make Kiev a world-class city for ballet.

Mandela's children bid to ditch ally from company boards

Agence France-PresseApril 10, 2013 06:45

Nelson Mandela's children have asked a court to remove their father's friend and lawyer George Bizos from the boards of two Mandela-related investment funds, local dailies said Wednesday. Two daughters of ailing 94-year-old Mandela, Makaziwe and Zenani, filed the papers on Tuesday, two days after the anti-apartheid hero left hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia, the Star and the Sowetan newspapers reported.

Sridevi receives her Padma Shri, Sharmila Tagore, Rahul Dravid the Padma Bhushan

AsianetApril 9, 2013 09:03

The first batch of this year's Padma honours were handed out by President Pranab Mukherjee. Actresses Sharmila Tagore and Sridevi received their Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri respectively. Cricketer Rahul Dravid received the Padma Bhushan, reports NDTV. Sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra and researcher Yash Pal received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. Telugu producer D Ramanaidu received the Padma Bhushan.

South Africans give thanks for Mandela improvement

AsianetApril 9, 2013 08:21

Some South Africans have given thanks in Sunday prayers for the improvement in the health of Nelson Mandela, the former president who was discharged from a hospital after treatment for pneumonia. Members of an outdoor congregation in Johannesburg say 94-year-old Mandela was in their thoughts often during his most recent hospitalization.

Mandela discharged from hospital: S.African Presidency

AsianetApril 9, 2013 04:46

Former South African President Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital on Saturday following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition, South African Presidency said. "The former President will now receive home based high care," the presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said. President Jacob Zuma thanked the hard-working medical team and hospital staff for looking after Mandela "so efficiently," said Maharaj.

A South African successfully flies across the sea from Nelson Mandela's apartheid island

AsianetApril 9, 2013 04:02

A South African man yesterday successfully flew across the sea from Nelson Mandela's apartheid island prison using helium-filled giant party balloons. The six-kilometre (3.7-mile) crossing, to raise funds for a children's hospital named after the country's former president, was the first stunt of its kind from the historical site. Matt Silver-Vallance, 37, took around an hour to float across the Atlantic Ocean from Robben Island while harnessed to a mass of multi-coloured balloons in grey, drizzly conditions with low visibility. Making his way wearing a wetsuit, he floate

Gorbachev says "exceptional" Thatcher helped end Cold War

Thomson ReutersApril 8, 2013 10:45

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Margaret Thatcher was "a great politician and an exceptional person" who helped end the Cold War, said Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. Thatcher, Britain's first woman prime minister, died of a stroke on Monday. "Thatcher was a politician whose word carried great weight," Gorbachev, who sought to reform the Soviet Union and improved its ties with the West but failed to avert the collapse of the nuclear-armed superpower, said on his website.