It is going to come as a shock to tens of millions of lungs, but the Chinese government is planning a tobacco-free Olympics when the world’s heaviest smoking nation hosts the event in 2008. ”Let a smokeless games provide healthy competition, a healthy environment and a healthy lifestyle,” the Health Ministry said in a news release.
Congress has stalled Pentagon plans to put conventional warheads on inter-continental missiles for use in Washington’s ”war on terror”, out of concern that they could trigger a nuclear war. The defence department is seeking -million for the conversion of submarine-based missiles as part of its Global Strike project.
By day, residents of The Villages enjoy all the respectable pursuits of a healthy old age — a hand of cards, a tea dance and perhaps a round of golf before happy hour. But doctors are reporting a sharp rise in sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and human papillomavirus among pensioners at the retirement community and say the growing popularity of Viagra is to blame.
The African National Congress Youth League must retract its calls for the party’s next president to be Jacob Zuma, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said on Monday. Motlanthe said the youth league ought to be guided by the policies of the party, which gave it the same status as each of the nine provinces in terms of nominations.
South African cellular operator Vodacom on Tuesday reported a group-wide customer increase of 51,9% to 23,5-million for the year ended March. Revenue was up 24,6% to R34-billion, while profit from operations rose by 36,9% to R8,9-billion. Vodacom reported net profit after taxation up 32% to R5,1-billion.
Indonesia’s president warned on Monday night it would take months to deal with the basic needs of tens of thousands of earthquake survivors, as rescue teams all but gave up hope of pulling more people alive from the rubble. Relief has started trickling through to towns demolished by Saturday’s 6,3-magnitude quake that killed at least 4 300 people on Java island.
South Africa’s telecommunication industry is so poorly structured that an industry worth several billion has sprung up in its shadows, offering cut-price calls. The LCR or least-cost routing industry is saving businesses up to 40%, through implementing savings on the cellphone portion of their Telkom bill.
A few years ago the Actuarial Society of South Africa held a seminar on the responsibilities of a pension trustee. At the end of the seminar, when asked who would still be comfortable to take on the role of a pension trustee, not a single hand went up, demonstrating the weighty responsibility that trustees carry, says Magda Wierzycka, CEO of African Harvest Fund Managers.
Jacob Zuma emerges from the Johannesburg High Court after being roundly cleared of rape, and makes just two points to the crowd of admirers: he thanks them, and he hits at the media. Echoing comments by Judge Willem van der Merwe, he accuses the media of having found him guilty before all the evidence was in.
South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Monday told Western newspaper editors to stop generalising about Africa and concentrate more on the continent’s success stories. Issues of real concern, such as Western poaching of Africa’s best and brightest talent, were being overlooked as the world’s media focused on wars and poverty.