For Cuban exiles, the Versailles cafe is a parallel world. If there had been no revolution, no Fidel, they would have been sipping coffee and reading the daily papers in a place just like this in Havana. But 45 years on, they are still in Little Havana, Miami, in exile limbo.
Up to 64 north African migrants were feared dead on Monday night after their boat sank en route from Tunisia to southern Italy, according to Tunisian authorities. Twenty-two bodies had been found and the Tunisian coastguard said it had picked up only 11 survivors from the 75 migrants who boarded the vessel on Sunday evening.
The United States defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, on Tuesday attempted to distance himself from his earlier comments that there were no links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. In a statement issued hours after he had told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that ”to my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two”, Rumsfeld claimed he had been ”misunderstood”.
The smart card industry is poised for an unprecedented explosion in South Africa, with three large-scale rollouts set to begin in 2005 and several more waiting in the wings. More than 50-million smart cards are expected to be issued in 2004 and
2005 combined.
Medicines, especially for chronic conditions, are critical to survival, and should be exempted from VAT, official opposition health spokesman Ryan Coetzee says. In a statement released at Parliament, Coetzee noted that, despite it being a recommendation of her own pricing committee, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang "appears to have taken no action whatsoever to address the question of VAT on medicines".
Twenty-two striking Anglo Platinum mineworkers were injured on Tuesday morning when police fired rubber bullets to break up a roadblock outside a mine near Rustenburg, North West province police said. About 500 protesters started gathering outside the mine from about 4am and barricaded the entrance to the facility, said Captain David Serepa.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=123171">Strikes: Mine loses R28m a day</a>
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa started on a firm note on Tuesday and remained strong throughout the morning session, buoyed by firm world markets and the weaker rand. By midday the all share index had added 0,72%, industrials were up 0,81%, resources were 0,98% better, the gold mining index advanced 1,09% and the platinum index was 1,41% firmer.
The ambulance crew who failed to transport an injured, homeless man to hospital in Johannesburg will appear before a disciplinary tribunal on Thursday. Johannesburg Metro spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said on Monday that an initial inquiry by the city’s emergency management services into the incident had found the men had acted negligently.
Pirates attacked two tugboats within three days of each other in the Malacca Strait, taking a captain and engineer from one of the vessels, news reports said on Tuesday. The two men were kidnapped on Saturday when the heavily-armed pirates boarded the MV Erna in Indonesian waters off the coast of Belawan in North Sumatra, The Straits Times said.
Tearful outbursts by convicted paedophile William John Creasey on Monday brought his trial in the Wynberg Regional Court to a halt. The 55-year-old teacher is to be sentenced, probably this week, on nine counts of indecent assault involving three teenage boys, and for possession of child pornography.