The growth outlook for Mauritius, which is forecast between 5,3% and 5,5% in 2004, is more positive than the outlook for global growth, Standard Bank noted in a research brief on the country on Thursday. The bank noted the International Monetary Fund forecast that the global economy is expected to grow by 4,6% in 2004.
From Thursday the public will no longer be able to stroll along the wharves at South Africa’s ports, but this sacrifice will help the country comply with international security standards. South Africa, as a signatory to the Ship and Port Security Code, was required to ”implement a security plan able to respond to government security alerts”.
Nelson Mandela’s birthplace in Mveso and the Egazini battlefield near Grahamstown could be proclaimed national heritage sites.
The flight of nurses and doctors from South Africa — and other African states — has long been a source of concern for the governments of these countries. And, the advent of Aids has sharpened fears about the effects of this migration. Should donor agencies and NGOs start supplementing the salaries of health workers?
The very first time I visited friends at Dainfern Golf Estate and Country Club in Fourways, scrutinised by high-security fort personnel, my sister and I laughed and squirmed alternately. Never had we imagined that we would one day end up on the local set of <i>The Truman Show</i>. But then there is the little concern, that Dainfern and <i>The Truman Show</i> have too many things in common.
The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said on Wednesday that the militias which have terrorised western Sudan ”must be broken”, and described conditions in the region as a ”humanitarian catastrophe”. After visiting a refugee camp in northern Darfur, Powell warned that the United Nations will take action if Sudan fails to disarm the Janjaweed militias.
On Thursday morning, if all went to plan, Saturn gained a new moon. At the climax of a seven-year, 3,2bn-kilometre journey, a giant United States-European spacecraft named Cassini-Huygens sailed between two of the outer rings of Saturn, turned, fired its rocket engine for 96 minutes, and slowed down to become a prisoner of the planet’s gravitational field.
South Africa will offer about -million (R246-million) in tax incentives to local and foreign film companies over the next three years to promote the country as a prime filming location, the trade and industry minister said on Wednesday. Productions with budgets exceeding R25-million (-million) will qualify for tax rebates under the incentive programme.
In power, Saddam Hussein spoke of visions of his bloodied corpse being dragged from his palace and ripped down to the bone by a vengeful mob. It was a more decorous scene when the Iraqi authorities took legal control of him in a secret hearing on Wednesday.
There is no torment of regret so fierce, no prostration abject enough, than those the moral columnist must undergo when he sees that his work has done cruelty to an entirely innocent party. Callous and cavalier, he has broken a true and honest heart, a heart that knew only love and hope before his cyanide paragraphs killed forever that irreplaceable spark of joy.