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/ 24 November 2004
Almost 70 years after being looted by Mussolini’s troops, the Axum Obelisk, dating from the third century before Christ, is set to make a triumphant return from Rome to this northern Ethiopian town. The only question is exactly when. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi ”went to Italy”, enthused 80-year-old Abebe Alemayehu, one of the few living witnesses to the 1937 removal of the 24-metre funeral stele. ”Now it is sure the obelisk will return to Axum soon.”
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/ 24 November 2004
Four of Namibia’s opposition parties said on Wednesday that they plan to ask the high court to order a recount of ballots cast in elections last week that handed a landslide victory to the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) party. Swapo won 75,1% of the vote, its third victory since Namibia’s independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
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/ 24 November 2004
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is considering a strike to stop big vehicle and steel producers retrenching workers because of the rand’s strength. Spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said in a statement on Wednesday the union feared that the companies Dorbyl and Tiger Wheels may cut hundreds of jobs in automotive parts manufacturing.
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/ 24 November 2004
Iran has banned the sale of National Geographic Society publications to protest against the use of the term ”Arabian Gulf” alongside ”Persian Gulf” in its new world atlas, an Iranian official said on Tuesday. Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght, an official at Iran’s Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, said the atlas, which was released in October, also must be corrected to remove a reference that says Iran has ”occupied” several Gulf islands.
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/ 24 November 2004
A survey of the mental health of Taiwan office workers showed on Wednesday that most of them are unhappy and 40% of them have considered committing suicide.
The ”Unhappy Index” of Taiwan office workers has risen from last year’s 70,77 points to 74,34, according to the survey.
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/ 24 November 2004
Zimbabwe moved closer to passing a contentious law that would restrict foreign funding of human rights groups, as President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party defeated filibusters by the opposition. In a legislative session that stretched overnight on Tuesday, the majority Zanu-PF party voted down a series of last-minute amendments sought by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
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/ 24 November 2004
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Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik did not pay any personal income tax because his company had made a taxable loss, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday. Ahmed Paruk, from auditing firm David Strachan and Taylor, said the decision was made by his audit partner Paul Gearing and accepted by both him and Shaik.
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/ 24 November 2004
About 5Â 000 United States marines, British troops and Iraqi forces launched a new offensive aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds across a cluster of dusty, small towns south of Baghdad on Tuesday. Tuesday’s series of raids and house searches was the third large-scale military operation this month aimed at suppressing Iraq’s Sunni Muslim insurgency.
Outcry against ‘excessive force’
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/ 24 November 2004
The Cape High Court on Wednesday rejected alleged coup plotter Mark Thatcher’s bid to quash a planned questioning session by Equatorial Guinea prosecutors. His legal team had argued that the questioning, scheduled to take place before a Cape Town magistrate on Friday, violated Thatcher’s constitutional rights to silence and against self-incrimination.
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/ 24 November 2004
From December 1, it will be possible for some Telkom users to send and receive SMS messages from their landlines. In addition to the spoken message that already can be received through a landline, where a text message is converted into a computer voice, Telkom will offer a service that will enable customers to send and receive text messages. This service will only be available for postpaid users who subscribe to Telkom’s Identical service.