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/ 17 December 2004
Hollywood has joined the war. Universal Pictures announced on Thursday that it is to make The Battle for Fallujah. To prove it is serious, it has enlisted Indiana Jones himself, actor Harrison Ford, to help defeat the insurgency. The film — Hollywood’s first foray into the second Iraq conflict — is due to go into production next year.
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/ 17 December 2004
Bosnia’s international governor, Paddy Ashdown, on Thursday launched a crackdown on corrupt officials whom he has accused of deliberately failing to capture Europe’s most-wanted war criminals. Lord Ashdown said Bosnian Serb ”obstructionists” are willingly sheltering those wanted by the Hague tribunal.
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/ 17 December 2004
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is on course to take charge of historic negotiations designed to pave the way for Turkish membership of the European Union after European leaders on Thursday gave the green light to accession talks. In one of the most significant moments in EU history, Turkey was invited to start talks on October 3 next year.
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/ 17 December 2004
Financial services giant Old Mutual plc on Friday announced that Christopher Collins has agreed to succeed Mike Levett as chairperson of the board at the end of the annual general meeting on May 11 next year. The group said Levett has confirmed his intention to retire from the board at the conclusion of the meeting.
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/ 17 December 2004
This year will be remembered as the year that local equity bulls finally chased the bears into hibernation. As the JSE Securities Exchange’s (JSE) rally gathered steam, more and more money was pumped into the market, with people not wanting to be caught on the wrong side of the rally.
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/ 17 December 2004
Several investors in the Second National Operator (SNO) appear to be hedging their bets, using the Elephant Consortium to buy into Telkom, the monopoly service provider with which the SNO was designed to compete. Their involvement raises new competition concerns.
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/ 17 December 2004
Smuts Ngonyama, the African National Congress’s head of presidency, originally stood to be one of the biggest individual beneficiaries from the possible sale of a R6,6-billion stake in Telkom to a consortium led by former director general of communications Andile Ngcaba. A leaked document lays bare the Telkom conflicts and questions.
Elephants in SNO country?
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/ 17 December 2004
You’d know that face anywhere? Then thank your right fusiform gyrus. Scientists have identified the bits of the brain that can tell British Prime Minister Tony Blair from James Bond, or whether Margaret Thatcher has borrowed Marilyn Monroe’s hairstyle. The study helps explain that nagging feeling that you know a face, but cannot place it.
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/ 17 December 2004
Developers of a multimillion-rand luxury residential resort in the Cape winelands may have to go back to the drawing board as a result of a protection order issued by the South African Heritage Resource Agency to preserve the cultural history of the region between Stellenbosch and Paarl. There could be significant changes in the initial design plans at the exclusive Boschendal estate.
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/ 17 December 2004
One of the many tragic aspects of Phaswane Mpe’s sudden death last Sunday was that he had just embarked on a dramatic new path that he was convinced would bring him fulfilment. Only weeks ago, Mpe gave up a sought-after doctoral fellowship at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser) to devote himself to an apprenticeship as a healer.