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/ 29 September 2004
Experts say childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide, with 155-million school age kids overweight or just plain fat. South Africa is no exception. According to the Heart Foundation, 12% of children in the country are
obese.
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/ 29 September 2004
South African President Thabo Mbeki has poked fun at newspaper speculation about his successor, saying two correct predictions had been made. He stated at the South African Local Government Association conference at a convention centre in Cape Town on Wednesday: ”I have been told that some in our media have very recently been involved in a strange debate evidently to answer the question — what happens when Mbeki goes?!”
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/ 29 September 2004
HIV/Aids rates in northern Uganda are nearly twice as high as the rest of the country because of an 18-year war.
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/ 29 September 2004
Draped in white shawls, thousands of Asmarinos thronged September Square, the largest in the Eritrean capital, to mark the Meskel, the highlight of the orthodox religious calendar, which commemorates the discovery of Christ’s cross by Saint Helen. About half of Eritrea’s four million inhabitants are Orthodox Christians, according to the government.
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/ 29 September 2004
For now, the ”hygiene kit” — soap, candles, matches, two mosquito nets and basic clothing — is all that stands between the family of six and disease as this summer’s catastrophic monsoon floodwaters finally recede. ”We tried to stay in our home, but it was too dangerous and we had to go to the relief shelter [in a neighbouring school],” Helena (27) says.
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/ 29 September 2004
Trade liberalisation alone will not boost growth and poverty reduction in Africa, says the United Nations (UN) in its Economic Report on Africa 2004 (ERA 2004), published by the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa and released on Wednesday.
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/ 29 September 2004
South Africa’s CPIX inflation (headline inflation excluding mortgage costs) was up 3,7% year-on-year (y/y) for metro and other areas in August compared with 4,8% y/y in July, 5% y/y in June and 4,4% y/y in May, April and March, 4,8% y/y in February, and 4,2% y/y in January, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Wednesday.
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/ 29 September 2004
Some day soon your car could be speaking to you with a synthetic robot voice telling you: ”You’ve forgotton to lock up!” Or you could even ask it a question: ”Good morning, how do I switch on the lights?” A voice will respond: ”Turn the knob on the left”. Driving a car in 2010 will be a lot safer and more comfortable than today. The vehicle will be fitted with a host of ultrasound, infrared, radar and video and other electronic systems.
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/ 29 September 2004
An exclusive restaurant in London’s Docklands is demanding that customers ordering a rare burger sign a disclaimer that guards against legal action should the customer suffer food poisoning, the British press reported on Wednesday. The current issue of the weekly Lawyer magazine reported that the document also had to be signed by the duty chef and the restaurant supervisor.
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/ 29 September 2004
A Yemeni judge on Wednesday sentenced two men to death for orchestrating the suicide bombing of the USS Cole, in which 17 United States sailors were killed. The judge sentenced four others to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years for the attack on the destroyer on October 12 2000.