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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
After eight years of putting on one of Australia’s best Christmas displays Gavin Lockwood packed up the 80 000 fairy lights that drew pilgrims to his suburban Sydney home and set off to see how the rest of the world celebrated his favourite time of the year. ”I used to take the whole of November off work and basically turn the house into a grotto,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
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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."
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/ 3 December 2004
Although house prices in South Africa have risen by more than 30% over the past year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff have said, at this stage, there are no clear indications of a bubble having developed. Available data suggest that real estate prices rose from very low levels and there are significant regional disparities.
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/ 3 December 2004
Thousands of civilians on Thursday fled clashes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, amid Western concern over conflicting claims about whether Rwandan troops are operating in the area. Bernard Le Flaive, of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that ”several thousand” civilians were fleeing to Kanya, Kanyabayunga and Kirumba.
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/ 3 December 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140506/shaik_icon_new.gif" align=left>The trial of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik delivers a daily reminder of how the arms deal continues to rumble across the country’s political landscape, dragging corruption allegations and smashed reputations in its wake. This week the court relived the ignominious process whereby the Cabinet crushed an attempt by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts to flex its oversight muscles in probing the deal.
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/ 3 December 2004
The state’s continued opposition to the rights of same-sex couples is doomed to failure because of the stringent constitutional values relating to equality, say constitutional law experts. This week, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the common law definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman was unconstitutional.
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/ 3 December 2004
A series of blunders by state-owned rail company Spoornet has brought the $5-billion (R30-billion) revamp of Zambia’s railway infrastructure to a standstill. The fiasco, which has resulted in the suspension of senior Spoornet executives and the institution of a forensic audit, has also raised questions about Spoornet’s capacity to assist the continent to revive its railways, many of which have ground to a halt.