Sony showed off a new portable video game device on Tuesday that promises very high-quality graphics, a challenge to market leader Nintendo. Nintendo’s GameBoy Advance has essentially cornered the handheld market since its debut in 2001. The company has faced down other portable-game rivals without ceding much of its base — but it has never gone against a competitor as formidable as Sony.
Banco Austral, the Mozambican bank within the Absa Group, has announced solid growth in earnings for the year ended March 31 2004, the second consecutive year since Absa acquired it that the Mozambican bank has shown positive growth. The strong performance is attributed to a focus on the core capabilities of the bank.
Namibia’s President Sam Nujoma turns 75 on Wednesday, moving closer to retirement from public life after five decades as the southern African country’s dominant political figure. The former liberation hero announced last month that he would not be seeking a fourth term in office in elections to be held in November and will hand over the reins of power when his term ends in March 2005.
According to the first national HIV prevalence study among South African children, conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council, it appears that children run a much greater risk of contracting HIV-Aids than previously thought. The study shows that prevalence among children in the two to nine age group was 6,7%, higher than previously expected.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66196">Bid to stem Aids deaths</a>
”It’s hard not to get excited about the explosion in cellular telephony. Africa is now the world’s fastest-growing region for mobile telecoms. Thus crowed the industry’s cocks in front of the crowds at an international conference in Cairo last week. Yes, but…” Guy Berger takes a closer look at Africa’s mobile miracle.
An investigation will be launched into the shooting of three policemen and four awaiting trialists at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, Johannesburg police said. ”For sure, we will launch a full scale investigation into the matter,” Superintendent Chris Wilken told reporters at the scene of the shootout.
The latest computer worm has wreaked havoc in provincial government departments in Bisho, the government confirmed on Tuesday. The departments have apparently been unable to pay accounts and service providers for two weeks since their computer systems were attacked by the rapidly evolving Sasser worm.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, paid a lightning visit to the capital of war-torn Chechnya on Tuesday, announcing the Kremlin would increase the republic’s police force by more than a thousand men. The move was widely seen as a bid to show he had taken personal control of the crisis caused by the assassination of the Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, on Sunday.
Saddam Hussein will be handed over to the Iraqis before the transfer of power at the end of June, the lawyer preparing the former dictator’s trial said on Tuesday. Iraqis will also be given custody of more than 100 other top-level former regime officials, including Tariq Aziz, Saddam’s deputy prime minister, and Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as ”Chemical Ali”.
A United States hostage in Iraq was pictured being beheaded by Islamic militants in a video released on Tuesday that said that the grisly act was revenge for the abuse of Iraqi detainees by US troops. Five men wearing headscarves and black masks were pictured standing behind a bound man in a Guantánamo Bay-style orange jumpsuit, who identified himself briefly before one of his captors put a large knife to his neck.
‘Bush is not up to the job’
Disgust, shame, denial
United States to hand over Saddam
Too easy to blame Bush