Cobbled and quaint, Louisburg Square perches on fashionable and flush Beacon Hill, home to Boston’s elite. In one corner stands a mansion as stately, tall and imposing as its owner, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. If you are looking for clues to why Kerry’s campaign has struggled and why he should not be counted out yet, there are few better places to start than his own front door.
It must have seemed like a terrific stroke of luck: Dick Cheney, the man who for the past five years had been the chief executive of Halliburton, became the vice-president in 2000. The oil services and engineering company was given a direct line to the White House. But Halliburton’s relationship with the Bush administration is beginning to prove more problematic than it is worth.
Wildlife conservationists and government delegates on Monday approved proposals by Namibia and South Africa to kill and export as hunting trophies a small number of endangered black rhinos, protected under an international treaty. South Africa’s downscaled proposal was widely endorsed, but drew criticism from some countries and the World Wildlife Fund.
South African Trade Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa says nearly 290 000 pirated DVDs were seized by the South African Police Service and customs officials between January and July this year. "This figure is double the number seized in 2003," he added. .
The wage offer made by world number one platinum miner Anglo Platinum to the National Union of Mineworkers last week was final and the group called on the union to reconsider its stance regarding its strike, AngloPlat spokesperson Mike Mtataki said on Monday.
South African new vehicle sales in September 2004 increased by 22,7% year-on-year (y/y), or 7 971 units, to 43 145 units after rising in August 2004 by 18,8% y/y and in July 2004 by 15% y/y, figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa on Monday showed.
The cross examination of former SA Airways (SAA) chief executive Andre Viljoen in a competition tribunal hearing was postponed on Monday in Pretoria when he failed to appear. Competition Tribunal chairperson David Lewis was informed by SAA’s advocate, advocate Rafik Bhana, that he was ”stucked” in Mozambique.
South African Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has confirmed that he will be consulted before quotas for professional categories and occupational classes of immigrants are set in terms of the Immigration Act. "Regarding criteria for the attraction of skilled immigrants, the Immigration Act uses quotas that are now to be prescribed according to specific professional categories and occupational classes," the minister said.
Authorities in Greece are laying on bus trips to countries that might solve the plight of lovelorn farmers desperate for wives. The startling shortage of available females in the country’s remote rural areas has spurred the ”love tours” by men who once mocked the likes of Shirley Valentine.
The United Nations organisers of Afghanistan’s first democratic presidential election admitted at the weekend that they expect next Saturday’s polling to be be marred by fraud, intimidation and violence. David Avery, chief of operations for the joint electoral management body, predicted that with more than 100Â 000 staff who had not seen an election before, it ”will not look pretty”.