So, 2005 is remorsefully underway, and many of us are truculently trickling back from vac. Still, it’s not too late for some new year’s resolutions — a wish list of what could happen in regard to media in the coming months. I accept that long ago some people resolved to never make any resolutions for an anno novus. But bear with this Initiative for Media Improvement in 2005.
Rescue workers freed an Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin from a small lagoon where the Asian tsunami had dumped it — returning it to the Andaman Sea in a rare story of survival 10 days after the waves crushed tourist resorts in the surrounding Khao Lak area. The fate of a second, smaller dolphin — believed to be the larger one’s calf — is unclear.
A car bomb exploded outside a police academy south of Baghdad on Wednesday during a graduation ceremony, killing at least 20 people, a police official said. The bomb exploded outside a gate of the academy in Hillah, about 95km south of Baghdad, said police Captain Hady Hatef.
DNA tests will be conducted on two women claiming to be the biological mothers of twin baby boys found abandoned in a Johannesburg minibus taxi on December 10. The driver noticed them after he had dropped off all his passengers. Seven women then claimed to be the mother of the boys.
South African Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka wants diamond producers to retain a sizeable proportion of rough diamonds in the countries in which they were mined. She was echoing remarks by the Botswana government where Debswana has been pressured to promote job creation in secondary industries.
Philippines police have been ordered to take English grammar lessons and lose weight to improve their crime-fighting abilities, the national police chief said on Wednesday. Police will also be made to undergo leadership and stress-management courses, Interior Undersecretary Margarita Cojuangco said.
The trial of four former army and police chiefs accused of genocide and war crimes in Rwanda will resume next week after a three-month suspension, the independent Hirondelle news agency covering the case reported on Wednesday. The trial was suspended on October 11 to allow time for a new lawyer to familiarise himself with the case.
Europeans honoured the 146Â 000 victims of the Asian tsunami disaster on Wednesday, observing a European Union call for three minutes’ silence at noon. Flags were lowered to half-mast, stock exchanges stopped trading and public transport came to a standstill.
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party was wracked by further divisions on Tuesday when ordinary members briefly held hostage National Political Commissar Elliot Manyika. Protesters, many of them from Zanu-PF’s Women’s League, blocked the entrance to Zanu-PF’s looming headquarters in downtown Harare, refusing to let Manyika leave.
The country’s property prices rose 32,1% in 2004 from 21,5% in 2003, South African banking group Absa said on Wednesday. In December 2004, the monthly Absa house price index rose by 32,6% in nominal year-on-year terms and the November increase in the index was revised to 34,6%.