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/ 26 October 2005
Legislation and procedures governing intelligence services will be reviewed in a bid to avoid ”future abuses”, Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils said on Wednesday. This is aimed at determining ”whether there are any gaps or ambiguities that need tightening up”, the minister said in a statement.
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/ 26 October 2005
Google is fierce competition for Microsoft, but the software giant does not fear the race and plans to upgrade its search technology in the next six months, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said in remarks published on Wednesday. On his first trip to Israel, Gates praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel’s contributions to the global high-tech market.
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/ 26 October 2005
Cherie Booth, the high-profile wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was at the centre of a new controversy on Wednesday over a lucrative speaking tour of Australia in February. It is not the first time Booth — who uses her maiden name in her professional life as a top lawyer and on personal engagements — has raised a few eyebrows.
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/ 26 October 2005
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told Parliament on Wednesday he will not form a new government before January’s legislative elections. Parliament passed a motion on October 3 calling on Abbas to appoint a new government as a result of the current administration’s failure to halt the security chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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/ 26 October 2005
There is no breach between the United Nations and the South African government over HIV/Aids, the Department of Health said on Tuesday in reaction to an article in The New York Times. The article quoted a book published by the UN special envoy to Africa on Aids, Stephen Lewis.
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/ 26 October 2005
At least 10 children died and 45 were injured, five of them seriously, in a stampede at a primary school in south-western China’s Sichuan province, state media said on Wednesday. The stampede started when children panicked as they were going down a dark stairwell to leave the school on Tuesday evening.
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/ 26 October 2005
A 92-year-old woman smoking in her room caused a fire at a retirement village on Tuesday night, killing one woman and injuring nine others in Highlands North, Johannesburg. ”Apparently she was a very heavy smoker,” emergency services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said on Wednesday.
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/ 26 October 2005
The Australian navy on Wednesday denied its ships were behind two mysterious mass strandings in 24 hours that left 130 pilot whales dead on the coast of the island state of Tasmania. About 80 pilot whales beached themselves at Marion Bay on Tuesday, just hours after nearly 60 of the animals died in an earlier stranding in the same spot.
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/ 26 October 2005
Mamelodi Sundowns humiliated Bush Bucks 5-1 in a one-sided Castle Premier Soccer League match played at Loftus on Tuesday night. The home team certainly lived up to their motto ”the sky’s the limit”, even without the support of their coach, Angelo Kappa, who is still under suspension.
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/ 26 October 2005
A drug designed to protect people with HIV/Aids from dangerous bacterial infections could also protect them against malaria, according to a report on the <i>Science and Development Network</i> website. Combining treatments in this way could be a major advantage in Africa, where many people have little or no access to malaria drugs.