South Africa’s 2004 motor trade sales rose by 17,4% year-on-year to R175,3-billion after a 12,3% rise in 2003, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday. This compared with growth of 9,8% and 7,4% in 2004 and 2003 in nominal gross domestic product.
Japanese police have arrested an unemployed man for burying needles in fried chicken at a supermarket and swallowing them in a bid to get money from the store. Kyosuke Miyasako (43) told the supermarket in the Tokyo suburb of Sayama that he had eaten needles in its chicken and another customer found needles in sushi.
Seven people have killed themselves within hours of each other in Japan in the latest round of suicides committed after pacts made on the internet. Four people in their 20s and 30s were found dead in a car in a mountainside parking lot in Tochigi prefecture late on Monday.
Striking truck drivers were marching to the bargaining council for the trucking industry in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, to present a memorandum on Wednesday morning. About 500 strikers — some armed with knobkieries — gathered at Beyers Naude Square. They would join about 2Â 000 striking truck drivers already waiting outside the bargaining council.
Cape Town band Flat Stanley are on the road to fame and show no signs of stopping soon. Vocalist Andrew Mac spoke to Riaan Wolmarans.
There can hardly be a more surreal setting in which to watch Living with Michael Jackson. The documentary made by the British TV journalist Martin Bashir is at the centre of the current trial of the 46-year-old entertainer on charges of child molestation.
Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Alliance, writes for the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> on the debate in Parliament two weeks ago about President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address, which "contained two parallel debates — one looking back at the past, the other focused on the future".
It’s the dream of all naturalists: immortalising themselves by naming a new animal or plant species they have discovered. But scientists Robert Wallace and Humberto Gomez of the United States Wildlife Conservation Society have decided to carry out an internet sale to auction off the rights to name a monkey species the two men recently discovered in Bolivia.
West African leaders said on Tuesday they have appointed a regional observer to help reconcile Togo’s polarised political parties ahead of presidential elections in April to choose a successor to long-time autocrat Gnassingbe Eyadema. The appointment of the observer is one in a series of proposals to accompany the Togo electoral process.
The government is to review the visa regime inherited from ”the bad old days”, Director General of Home Affairs Barry Gilder said on Tuesday. He was speaking to journalists on the final day of a regional meeting of the United Nations-backed Global Commission on International Migration.