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/ 30 September 2004
At least two Zimbabwean businessmen have been arrested while scores more face ”de-registration” after a police crackdown on bogus fuel imports. Zimbabwe’s Energy Minister, July Moyo, has said that as many as 24 fuel importers could be closed down after failing to prove they imported either petrol or diesel into the country.
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/ 30 September 2004
Four of South Africa’s leading apparel retailers — Edcon, Foschini, Truworths and Woolworths — have announced the establishment of a trust fund to help research and implement solutions to sourcing in the local apparel manufacturing industry, as well as confirming their commitment to local sourcing.
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/ 30 September 2004
The Sudanese government has again denied it will grant autonomy to any state in northern Sudan, while criticising the chief of the United Nations refugee agency chief for calling for autonomy in the war-torn Darfur region, a press report said on Thursday.
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/ 30 September 2004
Strikes are set to take place at the world’s biggest platinum mines on Thursday following stalled wage increase negotiations. Trade union Solidarity said its 1 200 members were scheduled to down tools at Anglo Platinum (Amplats) mines in the North West and Limpopo provinces at 2pm.
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/ 30 September 2004
‘First it was the fags, now it’s the drink,” came the murmur from the street corners outside Ireland’s pubs this week. With smoking banned from bars, drinkers are braced for a different government crackdown after statistics revealed a country killing itself with alcohol.
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/ 30 September 2004
Martha Stewart, who built an empire teaching Americans how to cook, garden and entertain, is facing a very different lifestyle after being told to report to a prison in West Virginia by October 8. The United States bureau of prisons on Wednesday turned down a request by Stewart to serve her five-month sentence closer to her home in Bedford, New York, and her elderly mother.
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/ 30 September 2004
When mutineers from HMS Bounty were looking for a place to hide in the Pacific in the late 1700s, their leader, Fletcher Christian, exploited some sloppy map making to set up home on an island they knew was in the wrong place on British Admiralty charts. It was an inspired choice that led to the establishment of one of the world’s most isolated communities.
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/ 30 September 2004
For singletons and insomniacs, he is proving the ideal partner. This is a man who does not snore or fidget in bed, and who is happy to wrap a reassuring arm around his nearest and dearest until morning arrives. He does exist, but — inevitably — there is a catch. This man comes without a head and is stuffed full of foam. He is the pillow-shaped man, the latest sleeping aid from Japan.
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/ 30 September 2004
A Johannesburg pet shop owner and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) were at odds on Wednesday over whether snakes should be fed live rabbits or not. NSPCA Inspector Phillip Roberts said he was ”disgusted, repulsed, and very angry” when he went to the pet shop and saw live rabbits in the snake containers.
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/ 30 September 2004
After months of exchanging insults from a distance, George Bush and John Kerry will finally face each other tonight in a debate that is likely to be the challenger’s best chance to turn the election around before the November 2 poll. The debate is the first of three, but it will have the biggest audience — up to 50-million Americans — and it deals with the issue at the heart of this presidential election: national security, Iraq and the ”war on terror”.