Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa has fired his vice-president, Nevers Mumba, for making a public statement about a fugitive former spy chief without consulting the presidency. ”I have removed him with immediate effect and revoked his appointment as nominated member of parliament,” Mwanawasa said at a news briefing at State House late on Monday
A 72-year old Malaysian man took his marriage vows for the 53rd time in his life, this time with his newest bride – his first ex-wife, reports said on Tuesday. Kamarudin Mohammad tied the knot with Khadijah Udin, 74, his former sweetheart and ex-wife, on Sunday in the northern Kelantan state, the New Straits Times reported.
Business confidence is at record levels aided by a strong rand, lower domestic inflation and a surge in consumer spending, the SA Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Tuesday. Sacob’s business confidence index (BCI) reached a level of 130,9 points in September, which is 3,1 points higher than August’s level of 127,8.
South Africa’s Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils says the polarised world order of the Cold War era has given way to ”more uncertainty and unpredictability,” but this new order was here to stay. Kasrils was speaking at a national security conference in Pretoria — on the theme ”Reviewing National Security after 10 Years of Democracy” — on Tuesday.
For Cuban exiles, the Versailles cafe is a parallel world. If there had been no revolution, no Fidel, they would have been sipping coffee and reading the daily papers in a place just like this in Havana. But 45 years on, they are still in Little Havana, Miami, in exile limbo.
Up to 64 north African migrants were feared dead on Monday night after their boat sank en route from Tunisia to southern Italy, according to Tunisian authorities. Twenty-two bodies had been found and the Tunisian coastguard said it had picked up only 11 survivors from the 75 migrants who boarded the vessel on Sunday evening.
The United States defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, on Tuesday attempted to distance himself from his earlier comments that there were no links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. In a statement issued hours after he had told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that ”to my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two”, Rumsfeld claimed he had been ”misunderstood”.
The smart card industry is poised for an unprecedented explosion in South Africa, with three large-scale rollouts set to begin in 2005 and several more waiting in the wings. More than 50-million smart cards are expected to be issued in 2004 and
2005 combined.
Medicines, especially for chronic conditions, are critical to survival, and should be exempted from VAT, official opposition health spokesman Ryan Coetzee says. In a statement released at Parliament, Coetzee noted that, despite it being a recommendation of her own pricing committee, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang "appears to have taken no action whatsoever to address the question of VAT on medicines".
Twenty-two striking Anglo Platinum mineworkers were injured on Tuesday morning when police fired rubber bullets to break up a roadblock outside a mine near Rustenburg, North West province police said. About 500 protesters started gathering outside the mine from about 4am and barricaded the entrance to the facility, said Captain David Serepa.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=123171">Strikes: Mine loses R28m a day</a>