A young Iranian conscript has had 15 of his teeth pulled out by a dentist in the false belief that the drastic move would get him out of his military service, the Iran newspaper reported on Wednesday. According to his father, the young man was led to believe that a quick ticket back to civilian life was the loss of 15 teeth.
The United Nations is appealing for $13,1-million (about R76-million) to provide urgent relief to 54Â 000 Somalis who lost their homes and livelihoods after last week’s deadly tsunami slammed African shores, a UN spokesperson said on Wednesday. Somalia’s civil war has devastated the country’s physical infrastructure.
The skies over Asia are being darkened these days by an abundance of relief-bearing cargo planes, reflecting the huge outpouring of international sympathy and support in response to the tsunami crisis. But in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, people might reasonably ask: ”How about some relief for us?”
In expressing its dismay at Telkom’s new tariffs for 2005, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday accused the fixed-line monopoly of "milking" poor South Africans to support tourists. Telkom has increased the cost of local calls and calls to cellphones while reducing international rates.
Hidenobu Murakawa stops his tour for a moment and apologises for the interruption. It’s the midday crunch, and he doesn’t want to disturb the bereaved.
The crematorium is his pride and joy, and performs 15 000 cremations each year. With precious little space left in Japan for traditional graves, innovation has become important.
A United States federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out a defamation lawsuit that Evel Knievel and his wife brought against the cable television sports network ESPN for labelling the daredevil a ”pimp”. The 66-year-old Knievel and his wife, Krystal, claimed a caption to a photograph posted on ESPN’s website damaged their reputations.
Agencies in China’s Chengdu city are offering rented girlfriends to bachelors who need someone to show off to relatives during the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, state press said on Wednesday. A hired girlfriend can cost as much as 300 yuan (about R200) a day.
My first visit to Bela Bela (as Warmbaths is now called) was a hurried affair. I arrived in the afternoon and only glanced at the people strolling in the streets. Ten years later, on yet another trip to Warmbaths, and I have to admit that my feelings for the small dorpie were not infatuation but genuine love — feelings that have propelled me back toward the town and into another bout of real passion.
Air traffic at Cape Town International airport was delayed on Tuesday afternoon after an ex-military fighter jet jettisoned about 3 000 litres of fuel following an engine failure shortly after take-off. The drama unfolded at about 3pm when one of the two-seater aircraft’s two Rolls Royce engines failed.
Property group Gilboa Properties plans to change its name to Absolute Holdings and transfer its listing from the main board of the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) to the Alternative Exchange (AltX) in 2005, in line with its change in focus from a property-development company to tile wholesaling and retailing, as well as mining.