Al-Qaeda is expected to launch attacks every three months in 2004, with growing threats from a number of smaller terrorist organisations, an international terrorist expert warned on Wednesday. ”The West is likely to witness another mass casualty attack on Western soil,” he said.
Dirty bomb sparked US alert
Members of the public wishing to comment on the planned demolition of certain Johannesburg inner city buildings to make way for the Gauteng provincial government precinct should do so by February 4. The government plans to pull down these buildings to make way for a public square.
Fear that ”terrorists” might set off a dirty bomb prompted United States authorities to raise the country’s level of alert to ”orange” or high. Based on experts’ belief that al-Qaeda may attempt to set off a dirty bomb during the end-of-year celebrations, scores of nuclear scientists with detection equipment travelled to five major cities.
Agriculture officials met on Wednesday to work out measures to contain transmission of a mystery virus that has killed as many as 60 000 chickens in Vietnam. The disease emerged last week in the southern provinces but has now spread to other Mekong Delta provinces and Ho Chi Minh City as a result of panic selling.
New car sales for 2003 are expected to rise by 5%, a banking group reported on Wednesday. Old Mutual Bank manager Ben Stander said sales are expected to continue growing in 2004. He said lower interest rates and increased advertising are among the causes for the growth.
There were scenes of jubilation and tears of joy on the steps of the Cape High Court on Wednesday when a group of Seven-11 franchisees celebrated a judgement effectively holding the mother corporation liable for about R50-million in claims. The case was described as a ”landmark” for the South African franchise industry.
South African stocks delivered mixed performances on Wednesday morning, leaving the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) level overall. Gold stocks were a feature on the downside, but a weaker rand pared losses. The rand was quoted at R6,54 per dollar from R6,48 when the JSE closed on Tuesday.
The latest atrocity in Afghanistan — a dozen children killed by a ”bicycle bomb” in Kandahar on Tuesday — is a reminder that Iraq is not the only place where US-sponsored regime change has not produced peace. Defeating insurgencies cannot be done by the iron fist alone.
Indonesia said on Wednesday its shared colonial past with Zimbabwe meant it could ”understand” that country’s controversial programme of seizing white-owned farms and giving them to blacks. ”As a country that has also experienced land reform and a colonial past, we understand,” said Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.
South Africa’s Competition Commission has found, following an investigation, no evidence of excessive steel pricing by steel group Iscor, commission spokesperson Karin Coode said on Wednesday. The investigation followed complaints by South African gold miners Harmony Gold and Durban Roodepoort Deep and others.