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/ 30 January 2006
Nigerian separatist militants released four foreign oil workers on Monday, after holding them hostage in the swamps of the Niger Delta for almost three weeks, officials and their employer said. The men — an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and a Honduran — have been handed over to the Bayelsa State government.
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/ 30 January 2006
Israel has decided to freeze funds to the Palestinian Authority, fearing the money could end up aiding terrorist elements, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday. ”It must be made very clear, we are not going to transfer funds which could finance terrorist attacks against our civilians,” Olmert said on public radio.
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/ 30 January 2006
Muziwendoda Kunene, the man alleged to be at the centre of the African National Congress spy and hoax e-mail saga has re-appeared, two weeks after he was reported missing. National police spokesperson Sally de Beer said Kunene voluntarily reported to the Douglasdale police station in Johannesburg at about 2pm on Sunday.
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/ 30 January 2006
Canon said on Monday it marked record high profit and sales for the year to December thanks to robust sales of digital cameras and colour printers, projecting a better performance this year. The company said its group net profit for the year to December gained 11,9% from a year earlier to an all-time high of ¥384,1-billion ($3,3-billion).
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/ 30 January 2006
Judgement day arrived for Enron’s two former chief executives on Monday, about four years after the fraud that rocked the corporate world. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were set to go on trial in Houston federal court, facing hefty prison terms for securities fraud and conspiracy in connection with the 2001 meltdown of the energy giant that was one of the largest United States corporations.
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/ 30 January 2006
Capote star Philip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon and the drama Crash stole top honours at Sunday’s Screen Actors’ Guild Awards, dealing a blow to Oscar favourite Brokeback Mountain. Witherspoon won best actress for her role as singer June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, while Hoffman was named best actor for his portrayal of United States author Truman Capote.
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/ 30 January 2006
Unions whose members started striking at Transnet on Monday over restructuring at the parastatal said the process had to be conducted with the proper participation of unions. ”There’s been a credibility problem with management, they’ve conducted themselves in an arrogant, imposing and unilateral manner,” said SA Transport and Allied Workers Union spokesperson Randall Howard.
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/ 30 January 2006
The city of Los Angeles is suing the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for hiding sex scenes in its computer code. The game, released in 2004, is one of a series in which the player takes the role of a criminal who commits murder, deals in drugs and pimps prostitutes in a virtual Los Angeles.
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/ 30 January 2006
South African cricket boss Gerald Majola has threatened to boycott tours of Australia if the racial abuse towards the Proteas continues, media reports said on Monday. Its website quoted Majola as saying: ”It is very serious and if it continues, yes, we would look very seriously about whether we return here for another series.”
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/ 30 January 2006
The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has threatened to resign unless Hamas agrees to a government and policies that can win international recognition and continued foreign aid. Abbas has apparently drafted a resignation letter and has warned he will submit it if talks with Hamas do not produce an administration that can work with foreign governments.