Clients of South African internet service provider Internet Solutions (IS) are worried that the internet service provider either has been hacked or is choosing to censor its users, <i>ITWeb</i> reported on Monday. <i>ITWeb</i> received complaints from IS users who have been unable to access adult-related websites and chat rooms.
Taxis with "unlucky" number plates in Shanghai will stop operating during university entrance exams this week to appease superstitious parents, state media said on Monday. "Lots of parents refuse to use cabs with number plates they consider unlucky," said Zhao Leping, head of the Shanghai Dazhong taxi company.
Indian Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav is beaming after a doll in his likeness has been snapped up from toy stores in the state of Bihar where he will soon contest elections. The plump doll, called Lalooji, sports a mop of white hair and is clothed in the politician’s trademark white kurta pajamyas.
Lifestyle diseases are placing an increasing burden on the health system, Gauteng health minister Gwen Ramokgopa said on Monday. She was to tell the provincial legislature later on Monday that people needing treatment for strokes, diabetes and hypertension made more than a million hospital and clinic visits in the past financial year.
About 1 300 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) again downed tools at Samancor Chrome’s Mpumalanga and North West mines after negotiations deadlocked, a spokesperson said on Monday. NUM deputy secretary Archie Palane said workers are protesting the company’s refusal to upgrade certain positions.
Shares in telecommunications group Telkom rose to a lifetime high of R119 per share on Monday after the firm announced its financial results for the year ended March 2005. Telkom reported a 53% rise in basic earnings per share to 1241,8 cents, from last year’s 812 cents.
Traffic was disrupted between Nelspruit and Riverside in Mpumalanga on Monday when thousands of taxi operators marched to the premier’s office to hand over a memorandum outlining grievances, news reports said on Monday. The operators want the government to abandon its planned taxi-recapitalisation programme.
Shouts of ”Viva” and ”Amandla” and the sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed through Johannesburg’s Park station on Monday as about 100 Metrorail workers protested against the company’s 4,5% wage offer. There were severe disruptions on Monday in the Western Cape, with only 2% of trains operational.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe is prosecuting about 50 hotels and tourist resorts for allegedly failing to remit foreign currency earnings to the central bank, a newspaper reported on Monday.
German football bosses go into the final year of preparations for the 2006 World Cup knowing only the final polish needs to be added to the 12 hosting stadiums. ”We now have the best infrastructure for football in the world,” said Wolfgang Niersbach, vice-president of the 2006 World Cup Organising Committee.