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/ 3 December 2004
Global freight rates for key shipping classes that move bulk commodities and grains are near or at all-time highs due to strong demand for ships to move commodities into China and Asia, freight analysts said. This is due to demand from Asia coupled with a shortage of ships
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/ 3 December 2004
In a split decision, the Cape High Court has rejected the appeal application by pharmacy groups including listed retailer New Clicks Holdings and the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa in their case challenging the government’s new medicine pricing regulations.
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/ 3 December 2004
Short-term outlooks are relatively favourable with the best chance for good rainfalls over the period December 6 to December 8, 2004 in South Africa’s maize belt, consultant Enviro Vision said in a statement said on Thursday. Regarding the size of the coming 2004/05 commercial maize crop, Enviro Vision put the crop at about 10 million tonnes, from the previous season’s 9,5 million tonnes.
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/ 3 December 2004
Philippine rescuers have recovered 753 bodies following this week’s storms in the northeast of the country, and 345 people are still missing, a military spokesman said Friday. The latest casualties were caused by Typhoon Nanmadol which passed through the northeast on Thursday. The civil defence office in Manila said the typhoon killed 35 people and left 13 others missing.
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/ 3 December 2004
Gauteng education minister Angie Motshekga was forced last week to apologise to the legislature for ”inappropriate conduct” first exposed by the Mail & Guardian, but was cleared in a provincial probe into suspicion that she may have benefited personally from a government contract. However, she may not be completely in the clear, as more investigations are pending.
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/ 3 December 2004
Disgraced former Northern Cape ANC chairperson looks set to regain party leadership, John Block is expected to return to topple the acting chairperson, Premier Dipuo Peters, this weekend. Block resigned from all his positions in the government and the ANC last year after he admitted to abusing taxpayers’ money to finance an expensive jazz habit.
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/ 3 December 2004
Regulations controlling the use of 4x4s on South Africa’s beaches have been changed, allowing people who are physically disabled to apply for a permit to take their off-road vehicles on to the sand. The new regulations, published on Friday, will also allow people taking part in organised fishing competitions, as well as film crews, to obtain permits to drive on to beaches around the country.
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/ 3 December 2004
County health officials are having trouble finding a TV station willing to air a public service announcement about syphilis that employs a lumpy, red cartoon character named ”Phil the Sore.” Los Angeles-area broadcasters said the ad is in poor taste, but the county health agency said it is simply trying to reach gay men — the group at greatest risk of getting the sexually transmitted disease, which has been on the rise in recent years.
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/ 3 December 2004
New York is famous for being oversize: big buildings, big personalities and big price tags. The latest item to fall under the latter category is a martini at the famed Algonquin Hotel. The Martini on the Rock has one piece of ice — a diamond at the bottom of the glass that puts its price at about 000, the New York Daily News reported.
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/ 3 December 2004
South African opposition leader Tony Leon has accused President Thabo Mbeki of intellectual "necklacing" against individuals -– including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Leon said: "It is difficult to think of a single other democratic nation in which the head of state descends, with such dogged regularity, into public attacks on individual citizens."