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/ 29 December 2005
Philippine security forces have been ordered to tape over the barrels of their guns to dissuade them from firing into the air to welcome in the New Year, officials said on Thursday. Police and military officials said those found to have broken the tape seals over the New Year period without a valid explanation would be punished.
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/ 29 December 2005
Tense negotiations were under way on Wednesday night to try to secure the release of a British human rights worker and her parents, who were abducted in the Gaza Strip. The 25-year-old woman, identified as Kate Burton, was showing her parents around the town of Rafah near the Egyptian border when they were bundled into a car and driven off.
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/ 29 December 2005
Parts of Mthatha’s 540-bed Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital — including its operating theatres — were still without running water on Wednesday. The hospital’s difficulties were due partly to Mthatha’s general water supply problems, and partly to a succession of pipe bursts, Oliver Tambo District Municipality community services director Chauke Ngoma said.
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/ 29 December 2005
The Eastern Cape health department has hit back at a traditional leader who claimed it had incurred the wrath of the ancestors by meddling in the circumcision ritual. Contralesa provincial chairperson chief Mwelo Nonkonyana was quoted on Wednesday as saying the 18 circumcision-related deaths so far this summer season meant the department had ”dismally failed”.
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa’s official opposition says it will challenge the education quality assurance body, Umalusi, to state publicly how much the marks in the nationally set matriculation subjects have been adjusted upwards. The results — which are being released to pupils around the country on Thursday — will be officially released by national Education Minister Naledi Pandor in Cape Town later.
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/ 29 December 2005
China’s coldest restaurant is doing a roaring trade as deep winter sets in, with customers flocking to the all-ice building and its steaming "hot pot" meals, state press reported on Thursday. The restaurant can accommodate 100 patrons, who reportedly love the novelty of even the bar, tables and chairs being made from ice.
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/ 29 December 2005
Australia set South Africa a historically-challenging 366 runs to win the second cricket Test after extraordinary batting fireworks by Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday. The two Queenslanders hammered a rapid-fire 124-run partnership in 66 minutes off 93 balls to set up a declaration at 321 for seven 40 minutes before tea on the fourth day.
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/ 29 December 2005
The shock of seeing his brother murdered caused evil spirits to enter the body of alleged housebreaker Nkululeko Tuntubele, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Wednesday. The evil spirits had a major impact on his client’s physical condition, defence lawyer Asghar Mia told the court.
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/ 29 December 2005
South Africa has deported about 200 illegal Zimbabweans by chartered plane this week, an official said, in a move believed to have been prompted by the unavailability of bus and rail transport over the festive season. South Africa deports between 600 and 6Â 000 Zimbabweans every week from the Lindela repatriation centre west of Johannesburg.
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/ 29 December 2005
A key defendant in the Enron prosecution on Wednesday agreed a last-minute plea deal, potentially worsening the outlook for his former bosses Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling who are due to face criminal trial next month. Richard Causey, the former chief accountant at the bankrupt energy group, pleaded guilty to a single charge of securities fraud in exchange for a seven-year sentence.