No image available
/ 17 November 2005
The parliamentary committee looking into the viability of the Gautrain needed to do a ”bit more work” before it decided on the project’s future, Gauteng finance minister, Paul Mashatile, said on Thursday. The parliamentary transport portfolio committee recently recommended that the Gautrain should not go ahead.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Fidel Castro, the President of Cuba, has Parkinson’s disease, according to United States officials, who warn that his declining mental condition could lead to massive unrest. Doctors working for the CIA have concluded that Castro (79) the world’s longest-serving political leader, was diagnosed with the debilitating illness in 1998 and that his health has been fading for years.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Bob Woodward, the Washington Post journalist who exposed Watergate and for 30 years hid the name of his source, Deep Throat, has become embroiled in the CIA leak inquiry after revealing under oath that a senior Bush official told him the identity of a secret agent.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
There has been a lot of speculation about whether Google is preparing a challenge to Microsoft’s 95% dominance of the market for word processors and other office services. It already has, but it calls it by another name — e-mail. For years, like many others, I have been looking for a word processor that does a simple job well.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Teresa Nandulo (13) mothered her three siblings for three years after losing her father during Angola’s 27-year war and her own mother soon after. Reunited with relatives, she yearns for a role change. One of the estimated 18 000 people still separated from their families after the war, Nandulo and her sister and two brothers, were reunited with their paternal uncle last weekend by the Red Cross.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
A daily buffet of giraffe, zebra and crocodile will be offered to visitors at a zoo in northern Thailand, an environment minister said on Thursday, announcing plans that have left conservationists outraged. The zoo will officially open New Year’s Day and will feature five restaurants, including the Vareekunchorn where diners can have a taste of the exotic.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
The pirates audacious enough to raid an oil tanker off Iraq — where the United States military patrols — were anything but the stuff of romance and legend. The three boarded armed with machine guns and knives, according to a recent report by a shipping industry agency that tracks piracy.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
East Timor expects within two months to announce a deal with Australia on developing a disputed oil and gas field, its prime minister said on Thursday as the world’s youngest country courted foreign interest in its petroleum resources. East Timor, which was Asia’s poorest nation upon independence in May 2002, has been in long-running talks with its neighbour Australia over a deal on sharing billions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas reserves under the Timor Sea.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Former Bafana Bafana coach Clive Barker has offered to help the South African Football Association committee to find a new coach after head coach Stuart Baxter quit on Tuesday. ”Bafana Bafana is not a toy that everybody should demand,” he said. ”This is an important position.”
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
British Olympic rowing great Matthew Pinsent has described China’s training of some young gymnasts for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as tantamount to child abuse. In a report for BBC Radio, Pinsent described children in a Beijing gymnasium being pushed through the pain barrier and said one young boy had clearly been beaten by his coach.