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/ 14 October 2004
Post-communist Bulgarians have reacted with shock to an increase in nudity and sexual innuendo in advertising, prompting the city fathers of Sofia to set up a committee to police the content of downtown billboards. Bulgarian advertising agencies have protested that they have to provoke in order to be successful.
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/ 14 October 2004
A Hong Kong teenager dressed in a black lace dress and high-heel boots was caught taking snaps of women in a public toilet, a press report said on Thursday. The 17-year-old was also wearing a long-haired wig when he was cornered in a toilet of a karaoke bar after a woman discovered he was using his cellphone to take pictures of her.
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/ 14 October 2004
Slovaks were on the lookout for a foul-smelling bank robber on Thursday after police said the thief had a nasty odor. Police spokesperson Alena Tosevova said what the bandit wore was not the most noticeable thing for workers inside the bank, but rather a strong smell, which they reported to investigators.
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/ 14 October 2004
Apple Computer on Wednesday reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net profit of -million dollars, doubling from a year ago as sales of its iPod music player surged. The profit excluding special charges was 27 cents a share, topping estimates of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call who expected a profit of 18 cents a share.
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/ 14 October 2004
The Nigerian senate has ratified an extradition treaty with South Africa to facilitate the repatriation of crime suspects taking refuge in either country, officials said on Thursday. The treaty, which had earlier been endorsed by the Nigerian Cabinet, now has to be approved by the House of Representatives to be binding.
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/ 14 October 2004
A Kempton Park woman who looks after street children has alleged that cases involving police in the Ekurhuleni area do not receive the necessary attention, but the police have denied this. ”The Ekurhuleni Metro Police have held guns against the heads of street children,” alleged Siphumelele ministries founder Elsabe Coetzee.
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/ 14 October 2004
A record R15-billion from institutional and retail investors was channelled into unit trusts in the September quarter, South Africa’s Association of Collective Investments said on Thursday. In several cases, industry fund averages were ahead of stock-market indices with funds showing returns of more than 40% in many sectors.
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/ 14 October 2004
The JSE Securities Exchange, which weakened sharply in early trade, was off its worst levels in noon trade on Thursday in a market that was very quiet ahead of the South African Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision on interest rates due just after 3pm. Dealers expected the JSE to tread water until then.
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/ 14 October 2004
An Islamic court in northern Nigeria has sentenced a 29-year-old divorcee to be stoned to death for falling pregnant outside wedlock, a state government spokesperson said on Wednesday.
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/ 14 October 2004
The trial of 19 of people accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, due to resume next week, will be postponed following the death of a defence lawyer, the president of the court said on Wednesday. Fernando Mico Nsue, the lawyer for eight South Africans said to be implicated in the coup plot in the oil-rich West African state, died on Tuesday of malaria at the age of 62.