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/ 12 October 2004
Iraqi forces backed by United States soldiers and marines raided mosques on Tuesday in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi and detained a prominent cleric following fierce clashes that hospital officials said killed at least four people. Angry residents accused Americans of disrespecting the sanctity of city mosques.
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/ 12 October 2004
Mozambique’s National Elections Commission has announced it will not give observers access to all stages of the vote counting in December’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The decision has prompted an angry objection from the European Union, which plans to send one of the largest observer missions to the election.
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/ 12 October 2004
A 16-year-old Welsh teenager has defrauded customers of the internet auction site eBay out of the equivalent of 000 by offering non-existent electronic goods, British press reports said on Tuesday. The unnamed teenager, who has turned 17 since being caught in October last year, used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle.
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/ 12 October 2004
While 78% of South Africans are seriously concerned about HIV/Aids, an astonishing 58% are still having unprotected sex with partners whose sexual history they do not know. These were two of the results of Durex’s eighth annual online global sex survey in which more than 3 000 South Africans were asked about their sexual activities.
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/ 12 October 2004
Officials in central China have refused a father permission to name his son ”@”, a news report said on Tuesday. The father from Zhengzhou, Henan province, wanted to name his son after the computer keyboard character used in every email address, arguing that the symbol was now in common usage.
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/ 12 October 2004
Capitec Bank and MasterCard Southern Africa on Tuesday announced a pilot of the world’s first pre-authorised debit card based on the EMV standard, in the town of Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State. The new debit card is specifically designed to provide a straightforward, low-cost banking product with easy access to the mass market.
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/ 12 October 2004
Johannesburg is a city beleaguered by memories of its glorious past. There are just too many people who knew it back in the good old days. And like the city that houses it, the fabulously sophisticated past of the landmark Carlton Centre and hotel complex is spoken about with similar reverence. The present just can’t compare. In the second of the Home Brew series, we profile a Carlton
Centre enjoying an ”African renaissance”.
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/ 12 October 2004
Ordinary South Africans on Monday celebrated a decade of democracy by sharing with Parliament their experiences of the ”rainbow nation”, whose post-apartheid Constitution ensures equality for all. But many of the 150 participants who attended the special session complained that the black majority were still sidetracked after decades of oppression, and formed the main chunk of the jobless.
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/ 12 October 2004
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe wrapped up a three-day state visit to Mozambique on Wednesday by playing down the economic and social turmoil in his country. Mugabe told journalists the meeting with Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano was very fruitful and the two had discussed the state of his own country.
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/ 12 October 2004
Rescue crews were searching for survivors on Monday after a large wooden canoe capsized on a lake in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 23 people, a spokesperson for the United Nations peacekeeping force said. About 43 people survived the accident late on Sunday on Lake Kivu and were safe ashore.