A 24-hour hotline for concerned members of the public and farmers became operational on Wednesday, as the culling of thousands of ostriches entered its second day in the Eastern Cape. A media photographer was earlier on Wednesday turned away from a farm where the culling of the infected birds is taking place.
A top aide to Malawi’s ex-president has been sacked from his post as head of the state-run bus company over allegations of corruption involving purchases of buses and spare parts, an official said on Wednesday. President Bingu wa Mutharika fired Humphrey Mvula after he was arrested by police two weeks ago for corruption and fraud.
The trade union Solidarity has handed a memorandum to South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni calling, among other things, for a national emergency summit to discuss the loss of thousands of jobs because of the rand’s current strength. The union warned that the situation calls for stronger measures than mere observation.
World number-one rough diamond miner De Beers, 45% held by Anglo American, on Wednesday announced that its marketing division, the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), will with effect from its August 2004 sight increase rough diamond prices by an average of 5%.
Algeria’s roads are some of the deadliest in the world with 550 people killed in accidents there since the beginning of June. The figures show that every two hours a person is killed in a traffic accident in Algeria, with more that 4 000 killed annually and more than 57 000 injured, among them 500 who are left severely handicapped.
Suave, English and debonair: a spy with a dated attitude to women and often in trouble with his superiors. No, the name’s not Bond, James Bond, but Ian Fleming, the creator of the Cold War’s archetypal secret agent. Fleming died 40 years ago on Thursday at the age of 56 after penning 14 Bond novels, which have sold more than 65-million copies worldwide and have been translated into at least 36 languages.
A powerful father from beyond the heavens sends his son on a fateful journey to Earth to become a saviour for humanity. James Caviezel starred in the Biblical version of that story in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Could he play out that premise again under different circumstances? Say, the comic-book version, with blue tights and a cape?
Violence in Iraq has shattered Lebanon’s trade with that country, with shipments through Tripoli port halved and road transport down 70%, as Lebanese remain prey to Iraqi hostage-takers. Out of about 15 Lebanese kidnapped in Iraq, telecom employee Hussein Olayyan was found murdered in Baghdad in June and three others are still being held.
Road-rage murder accused Edward Kekana was granted bail of R5 000 and his case was postponed to August 31 by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The call centre supervisor handed himself over to police last Monday after allegedly shooting three people dead and wounding another in an alleged road rage confrontation last month.
A centuries-old historical row over the whereabouts of the body of Christopher Columbus appeared to have been solved on Tuesday when scientists in Spain conceded that the corpse buried at Seville’s gothic Santa Maria cathedral was not that of the famous explorer.