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/ 4 February 2005
Security guards and reporters trailing French President Jacques Chirac on his first visit to Senegal in a decade fell prey to the army of pickpockets operating in the capital, Dakar, members of the press corps said on Thursday. At least two members of the presidential security detail were relieved of personal effects.
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/ 4 February 2005
The world’s first newspaper made of gold has been published in south China, selling for 69 000 yuan (about R51 000) a copy, state media reported on Thursday. The one-off publishing event was launched by the <i>China Economic Daily</i> in the boom city of Shenzhen, the Xinhua news agency said.
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/ 4 February 2005
Polish lawmakers will be paid half their salary if they are "jailed temporarily" but won’t receive their daily parliamentary allowance, the Upper House Senate voted on Thursday. Senators voted 63 in favour and six against an amendment that made a distinction between temporary detention and fully-fledged imprisonment
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/ 4 February 2005
The United Kingdom on Friday urged the world’s richest nations to rise to the challenge of creating ”enduring global prosperity” by removing trade barriers and stepping up aid for poorer countries. This was at a conference on the advancement of enterprise ahead of a gathering of finance ministers of leading G7 countries in London.
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/ 4 February 2005
Local internet service provider M-Web looks set to unsettle South Africa’s national fixed-line and mobile operators with its new offering, Callsaver, which enables its subscribers to make calls to international destinations at tariffs lower than cellular and landline services, it emerged on Friday.
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/ 4 February 2005
Pascal Lamche’s documentary Sophiatown should be seen by all who have an interest in South Africa’s relatively recent past — especially those interested in the way politics and culture were necessarily entwined. Shaun de Waal reviews.
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/ 4 February 2005
President Thabo Mbeki has praised world leaders who were at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, last month, for committing to be ”part of the generation that eliminates extreme poverty” in Africa and the world. Mbeki led a South African delegation that attended the meeting at the end of January.
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/ 4 February 2005
The Ugandan government said on Thursday that it has decided to halt its military operations against Lord’s Resistance Army rebels for 18 days on condition that they confine themselves to a designated area in the north as efforts to revive peace talks continue. The truce will take effect on Friday morning.
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/ 4 February 2005
Nigeria’s army quelled a demonstration at one of the country’s main oil-export terminals on Friday, said the platform’s operator, ChevronTexaco, and activists claimed two protesters were shot dead. Soldiers in the Escravos terminal opened fire on the demonstrators, killing two, said Helen Joe, a militant leader.
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/ 4 February 2005
A disgruntled Thai customer on Friday smashed up his allegedly defective Toyota pickup truck with a sledgehammer after failing to get the company to replace the offending vehicle with a deluxe Lexus sports car. Noraset Roonpraphan took a sledgehammer to his two-year-old Toyota Hilux Tiger pickup truck.