Saturday 19 April 2008

Saturday 19 April

Bright morning, with some cloud around. About the best weather in the country. The forecasters were bemoaning the presence of low cloud, rain and wind in southern England.

Situation in Zimbabwe is getting murkier with the day. A partial recount is underway, with allegations that the ballot boxes "have become pregnant and reproduced", in other words, the ruling party has stuffed the boxes with false ballots for Mr Mugabe. Meanwhile, a Chinese ship with armaments on board, the An Yue Jiang, has left the South African port of Durban, after dockers refused to unload its cargo, which was destined for Zimbabwe. This was backed by a court ruling. The vessel is now thought to be heading for Mozambique.

China's southern province of Hainan has been struck by typhoon Neoguri - one of the earliest typhoons on record (since 1949 at any rate). Normally, the typhoon season commences in May. 100,000 people have been evacuated and 76 flights were cancelled from local airports. The typhoon has been downgraded to a tropical storm and is making landfall 120 miles west of Hong Kong. That city is under strong wind warning, as winds of 30 mph, gusting to 60 mph, lash the territory.

1 comment:

  1. This thing in Zimbabwe is getting scary.  I hope the rest of us can stay out of it.  Woke up to falling snow this morning.  It's still only about 35 degrees at almost 10am.  Linda in Washington

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