No image available
/ 24 November 2006
South Africa’s medical-tourism industry has skyrocketed with the number of overseas patients drawn by ”scalpel safari” packages more than doubling in three years, an expert said on Friday. The booming sector now earns about R260-million annually, Martin Kelly, president of the Association for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, told the media.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Forensic experts exhumed the remains of 156 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in a mass grave found in an eastern Bosnian village, an official of a commission for missing persons said on Friday. Ninety complete and 66 incomplete bodies were found, Murat Hurtic of the Muslim-Croat federation’s commission for missing persons said.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) on Friday denied media reports that the SPCA euthanises dogs donated by the police. SPCA spokesperson Christine Kuch said the statement, made on Talk Radio 702 on Friday, was ”damaging”.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Friday condemned the leak of internal reports to the media. The Star reported on Friday that a confidential report had described Cosatu president Willie Madisha as power hungry, dishonest and misled by President Thabo Mbeki.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Global aluminium producer Alcan says construction on its R19,5-billion smelter at South Africa’s Coega development zone will start in 2008, and first production is expected before the end of 2010. The company says it will also now begin discussions with potential partners on the project.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Suicide bombers ripped through a Shi’ite market in northern Iraq on Friday and mortars crashed on rival Baghdad neighbourhoods, ramping up sectarian tension a day after the bloodiest bombing of the conflict killed 202 people. As political leaders pleaded for restraint, two bombers killed 22 people at Tal Afar near the Syrian border.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
The crisis within the South African Post Office deepened this week when three members of the board resigned in protest against the suspension of the parastatal’s chief executive, Khutso Mampeule. The board members — Marthinus Crous, Jackie Lange and Phumeza Dzingwe — confirmed their resignations to the Mail & Guardian but refused to comment further.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
It’s difficult to get a direct answer from the new Auditor General, Terence Nombembe, even to a question as personal and direct as: ”Do you think you should be paid more?” He has a way of responding without really answering the question. To this he would only answer: ”I think I should be paid a package that is commensurate with the job that I do.”
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
<b>NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> For a heavily message-driven movie, the actual message of <i>Beat the Drum</i> is pitifully short of content, writes Shaun de Waal.
No image available
/ 24 November 2006
Ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of his murder from beyond the grave on Friday, in a statement read out the morning after he died of an unknown poison in a London hospital. ”You may succeed in silencing one man. But a howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.”