Gilding the lily
THE Sphinx will be undergoing a facelift, according to Egyptian antiquities officials. Plans are to remove layers of cement poured over the massive 4 600-year-old structure in an earlier restoration and replace them with limestone.
Fouling the air
The National Health Service in Britain said this week that with more than two-million people in Britain suffering from asthma and the number of asthmatic children doubling over the past 15 years, it is spending more than Stg 1-million a day on asthma medication alone.
Another Dr Death
THE Greek government has ordered an inquiry into allegations that a neurosurgeon operated on healthy patients, claiming they were suffering from cancer, and killed 20 of them in a series of grisly experiments. Dr Antonis Kritselis allegedly performed 60 operations on 10 patients in one year alone, performing unnecessary biopsies and removing vital organs.
A sort of sabbath I
PUBS in England and Wales stayed open on Sunday after lunchtime for the first time since 1780, as legal restrictions were lifted. The government has promised changes to the 215-year-old Sunday Observance Act including the opening of dance halls and discos.
A sort of sabbath II
Cape Town wine merchant Vaughan Johnson was arrested on the weekend for allegedly selling wine on a Sunday from his up-market shop at the Waterfront. A raft of Spar managers were arrested in Gauteng for similar offences.
Pressure cookers
POLICE suicide is on the increase. The South African Police Services Behavioural Sciences Institute said this week 91 policemen have killed themselves since January, mostly in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal.
What? Me worry?
THE British Ministry of Defence has won a High Court injunction preventing the publication of a book by a former SAS sergeant, claiming its details of operations could “jeopardise undercover missions and serving soldiers”. The publisher of Immediate Action will
Vat jou goed
THE trek is on, with 20 South African farmers leaving this week to settle in the Niari Valley of the Congo. Organisers say at least 100 families will follow within a year, and others will be leaving for Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Gabon.
And Rose?
RYAN and Jade have made the top 10 names Britons choose for their children, according to th Guinness Book of Names due out next week. Other popular girls’ names are Rebecca, Amy, Sophie, Charlotte, Laura, Lauren, Jessica, Hanna and Emma, and for boys, Daniel, Thomas, Matthew, Joshua, Adam, Luke, Michael, Christopher and
Dividing the spoils
A BATTLE over the division into municipal substructures (MSS) of Greater Johannesburg was won in a special electoral court this week by the African National Congress, whose four-MSS plan will link Soweto and the CBD. It will also favour the ANC in local elections, which is why five other parties in the municipal government opposed it.
Horsing around
THE OK Bazaars says horsemeat has not been found in boerewors prepared at its butchery in Mossel Bay, but zebra meat, which is “perfectly edible”, according to meat markets managing director Mike Barrett .
The business of sex
DESPITE strong opposition from scientists and animal welfare groups, Namibia has given permission for the annual seal cull to continue this year, with seal pups clubbed to death so that their penises can be sold to Asian buyers with virility problems. Fisheries minister Hifikepunye Pohamba says criticism of the cull has had no impact on tourism or foreign investment.
Back to Britain?
IN an about-turn, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has agreed to interview Nick Leeson, the trader who caused the Barings Bank collapse, in his cell in Frankfurt, where he is fighting extradition to Singapore. Leeson, who has agreed to plead guilty to charges in Britain, has been asking to be extradited there instead.
50 years
CHURCH bells tolled and sirens wailed across Nagasaki this week as tens of thousands of people gathered in the city’s Peace Park to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the dropping of a nuclear bomb on the city.
Plenty of room
THE world’s population is still growing, but the rate has slowed from 1,7 percent in 1991 to 1,5 this year, according to the Institute of Demographic Studies. The good news is that the world population in the year 2025 looks as if it will be a mere 8,31-billion.
Still waiting
THE murder trial of former Malawian president Hastings Kamuzu Banda and two aides has been suspended indefinitely while court officials participate in a civil servants’ wage strike.
That’ll show ’em
STUDENTS apparently outraged over their school’s refusal to mount a matric dance have wrecked Nomulelo Senior Secondary School in Grahamstown after holding teachers and community leaders hostage. The school had turned down the dance proposal because of lack of
Peace Park
AN ambitious plan to link the Kruger National Park with a similar ecosytem across the Mozambique border has received a boost with the establishment of a joint committee to set up a cross-border game reserve. The area between Kruger’s eastern boundary fence and the lower reaches of the Limpopo River has been surveyed for the Greater Gaza Conservation Area.
Mine inquest
THE official responsible for health and safety at Vaal Reefs gold mine admitted this week that last Friday was the first time he had visited the mine’s ill-fated number two shaft. Robert Proudfoot was being cross- examined during an inquiry into the June mining disaster at Vaal Reefs, where he began working in
>From the Talk Shop
* MPs owing money to the Department of Public Works for rental of government housing will be sent letters of demand next week. The department is preparing a reconciliation of mony owed, as some MPs believed they did not have to pay rent while Parliament was in recess, while they were out of the country, or ill.
* ONLY half the 11 000 affirmative action public service posts advertised a year ago have been filled, Public Service Minister Zola Skweyiya told Parliament this week.
* DRAFT legislation for a new civilian-oriented police force was published this week. The Bill will complete the amalgamation of the existing 11 police agencies.
* THE newly-published draft Social Work Amendment Bill seeks to abolish the South African Council for Social Work and replace it with a new council.