Within just days of new South African president Jacob Zuma's inauguration, a bitter racist sex-row erupted over remarks by new Western Cape provincial premier Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance Party. Zuma allies plan crippling strike actions.

A storm is gathering over Saturday's expected clashes between the banned Slavic -Pride parade, police and anti-gay counter-demonstrators in Moscow. The Dutch broadcaster NOS threatens to pull out of the Eurovision Song Festival in case of violence.

A drink made from Bolivian coca leaves is being sold in Amsterdam. The cocaine alkaloid is removed in the Netherlands. The drink's creators are building a brand-new market for the product - and it's all due to Bolivia's campaign to legalise the coca leaf.

The Eurovision song festival semi-finals kick off from May 12, with the finals on Saturday in Russia. However, Saturday's gay-pride parade and counter-demonstrations are also still going ahead in Moscow, despite a ban by police. Clashes are expected.

The Associated Press reports that the Taliban are suspected of using white phosphorus against civilians in their military campaign at Bala Baluk in the Afghan province of Farah.The independent Afghan Human Rights Commssion made the claim Monday.

The US aviation industry is leading the world's urgent race to find the best bio-fuel. Boeing, the World Wildlife Fund and leading airlines are funding Yale researchers who have been hard at work to develop a commercially-viable bio-aviation fuel.

Openly gay Dutch singer Gordon Heuckeroth says that if his trio The Toppers reaches the finals of the Eurovision Song Festival, he will boycot it - if Russian police 'crack down again' on a planned gay-rights demonstration on 16 May in Moscow.

The Sunday Times of Johannesburg reports that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s arrival at South African president Jacob Zuma's inaugural was marred by his threat to boycott the ceremony. Gaddafi was annoyed about being met by a 'junior' Minister.

Ten Vietnamese sailors have appeared under heavy police guard at the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court for alleged piracy and kidnapping charges. They were arrested by a police team on May 5 aboard the Taiwanese fishing vessel Balena outside Table Bay.

Interpol has issued an alert about criminals exploiting people's fears of swine-flu, Spam emails and websites are selling illegal, unlicensed or fake medicines, warns Interpol 's Executive Director of Police Services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.

Some 60 Eastern European men were arrested thus far for worldwide 'skimming' operations this month. They glue payment card scanners to the fronts of cash payout points and photograph people punching in their pin-codes with a hidden mini-camera.

The US military confirmed that it 'has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan." The stack of Bibles at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul were filmed over a year ago.The clips were shown by Al Jazeera TV this month.

Four bizarre 'prophets of a Gaia-healing safari' were arrested at the crucial Cahora Bassa power station in Mozambique and held for 'sabotaging' the hydro-electric plant. They were throwing 'orgon' disks in the water, 'trying to break a Satanic curse."

The World Health Organisation says that 24 countries have reported 2,384 cases of Influenza A (H1N1) infections. Mexico, with 42 deaths and 1,112 confirmed laboratory infections, has the highest number of cases. But the world is prepared, says WHO.

Forget evening dresses and bikinis. The girls who participate in a ten-week-long beauty contest in Saudi-Arabia are disguised in black burqas. And the winner will be the woman with 'the greatest 'inner beauty'.

Can hairstyles tell others about our political affiliations and cultural heritage? Ukraine's beautiful prime minister has exchanged her 'ethnic braids' for the classic hairstyle of Roman/Greco goddess, Aurora. What message is she sending to her people?

This week's violent confrontations in Rotterdam, in which encircled local police had to fire warning shots during Liberation Day riots in Europe's largest harbour city, 'were probably planned', its mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said at a press conference.

A gutsy South African police helicopter pilot managed to fly himself to hospital after being wounded in a shootout with a heavily-armed gang near Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday. Senior-superintendent Rob Siegrist, 40, was shot in a leg.

A woman is six times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner in South Africa than anywhere else in the world, a conference on Sexual Violence near Johannesburg was told on Wednesday. And most of their murderers were drunk and HIV-positive.

Pakistani forces say they have killed 64 'militants' in fighting in northwest Pakistan's Buner and Swat districts. The army says 37 militants were killed in Swat, where a peace deal to end Taliban violence has collapsed. Two soldiers have also died.