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/ 27 October 2004
Former combatant Marcus Weah says he was forced to smoke marijuana to make him brave in battle, and quit easily the day guns fell silent in Liberia, but he is rare. For the thousands of ex-fighters who will find quitting a drug habit more difficult, there is little available help.
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/ 27 October 2004
The sleepy town of Cabinda has a forlorn air about it, but few outward signs of the decades-long conflict that has plagued the oil-rich Angolan province. Although Cabinda produces 60% of Angola’s oil revenues, the province, saddled with one of the highest HIV rates in the country, has been slow to respond to the epidemic.
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/ 27 October 2004
At least eight people have died from an outbreak of bubonic plague in north-western China but authorities said the disease has been brought under control, state media reported on Wednesday. The plague outbreak was controlled after local health authorities took swift measures to contain the disease.
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/ 27 October 2004
The Democratic Alliance believes the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was shockingly treated in Zimbabwe, party chairperson Joe Seremane said on Wednesday. Seremane was referring to Tuesday’s summary deportation of a 13-strong Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.
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/ 27 October 2004
A police constable working in London has his main home in Dunedin, New Zealand, the British press reported on Wednesday. Chris McKee is the most extreme example of a key worker in the British capital being unable to afford to live there.
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/ 27 October 2004
South African-based gold miner Durban Deep (DRD), which proposes to change its name to DRDGold, is well positioned for the December quarter, having succeeded in reducing costs, the company said on Thursday. "We have done the restructuring. We have gone through the pain and now we have got the costs down," the company said.
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/ 27 October 2004
Although off its highs seen in early trade, the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) remained in the black in noon trade on Wednesday, taking its cue from world markets. By 12.05pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were up 0,48% and 0,63% respectively. Financials were 1,09% firmer, while the banks index jumped 1,38%.
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/ 27 October 2004
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in Mauritius on Tuesday and met Prime Minister and Southern African Development Community chairperson Paul Berenger, officials said. Tsvangirai, who heads Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), travelled to the Indian Ocean island from South Africa where on Monday he met President Thabo Mbeki.
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/ 27 October 2004
A coalition of trade unions and pro-democracy groups issued Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo with an ultimatum on Tuesday, warning him to cut fuel prices this week or face a renewed nationwide general strike. Obasanjo has defended the price increases as a necessary evil as Nigeria embarks on an ambitious series of economic reforms.
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/ 27 October 2004
Metals and mining company Kumba Resources is to spend R411-million on two new local projects as part of its plans to expand its coal business. Kumba executive Trevor Arran said the projects at the Grootegeluk and Leeuwpan coal mines would mitigate the effect of job losses announced within the group as part of the business
improvement plan.