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/ 3 February 2005
Chechen rebels called for the first ceasefire of the five-year guerrilla war in Russia’s war-torn republic on Thursday but pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya brushed the move off as a ”bluff” while the Kremlin kept silent over the announcement. ”This is all a bluff,” said the Chechen’s state council chief, Taus Dzhabrailov, of the ceasefire call.
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/ 3 February 2005
A child complainant in the sex-crimes trial of Pretoria advocates Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo had confessed to attempting blackmail others in the past, the high court heard on Thursday. Prinsloo’s advocate Piet Coetzee asked investigating officer Captain Carel Cornelius whether he was aware the girl had previously laid a charge against other people.
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/ 3 February 2005
Five people were critically injured and at least 20 hurt when a tornado whipped through the town of Klipplaat near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday evening. ”The town looks like Baghdad. It’s dead. There was wind, rain, hail coming from all four corners,” Iqwezi municipality councillor Mannetjie Blouw said.
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/ 3 February 2005
The future of a stalled diplomatic drive to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme depends largely on how it views United States President George Bush’s State of the Union address, analysts say. Three years ago, Bush grouped North Korea along with Iran and Iraq in an ”axis of evil”, but this time he used more neutral language.
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/ 3 February 2005
Defence counsel for three men accused of feeding a man to lions in Hoedspruit last year had to delay presenting their case on Thursday after one of the accused fell ill. ”Accused number one tells me he’s suffering from chest and throat pains,” Mathews Kekana, counsel for Richard ”Doctor” Mathebula, said outside the Phalaborwa Circuit Court.
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/ 3 February 2005
Amazon.com said on Wednesday that earnings for its all-important fourth quarter rose more than fourfold, but the internet retailing giant was helped by a big one-time tax benefit and missed Wall Street expectations. The results sent Amazon shares plunging 13%, or ,44.
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/ 3 February 2005
It’s young, it’s hip, it’s hot. And now Google, the company that transformed the internet search, has fueled a new high-tech fever by delivering blockbuster financial results. In results released on Tuesday, the Silicon Valley company said it raked in over a billion dollars in the most recent quarter and multiplied its profit by seven.
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/ 3 February 2005
Australian miner WMC Resources rejected an improved takeover offer from Anglo-Swiss giant Xstrata on Thursday and said it would concentrate instead on joint venture projects. Xstrata on Wednesday raised its bid from AUS,35 a share to AUS,20, valuing WMC at more than AUS,4-billion.
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/ 3 February 2005
A unique deal in which 10 former WorldCom directors would personally pay -million of a -million settlement to compensate investors over the company’s plunge into bankruptcy will be withdrawn, plaintiffs said. The plaintiffs were pulling out of the deal after United States District Judge Denise Cote on Wednesday struck down a key component of the agreement.
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/ 3 February 2005
Britain will be seeking approval from the United States for its grand plan to help alleviate poverty in Africa when finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations convene in London on Friday and Saturday.