Oil prices resumed their upwards march on Thursday as supply fears persisted despite a lifeline for Russian energy giant Yukos and efforts by Opec to reassure markets it still has spare output capacity. Brent North Sea crude oil for September delivery rose 55 cents to ,25 a barrel in early trading in London.
The deputy mayor of Buffalo City, which includes East London, collapsed and died in his office on Wednesday afternoon, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Colleagues heard a noise in 49-year-old Des Halley’s office at the end of a day packed with meetings, and on investigation found that he had collapsed.
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, in commentary published on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, urged Sudan to ”take decisive steps to end the violence in Darfur”, insisting that there is ”no alternative to peace on all fronts” to end the crisis. Powell reviewed efforts made by the international community to stop the carnage.
The family of Paul Meintjes of Hertzogville, whose resurrection was predicted by a "prophet" after his death about five weeks ago, has not yet made arrangements to remove the body from the town’s mortuary, mortician Nico Foulds said on Thursday. Meintjes’s body has been kept frozen in the town’s mortuary since July 1.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) plans to provide anti-retroviral drugs to 150Â 000 Aids patients in Ethiopia by 2005. The distribution of the drugs comes under the WHO’s ”3 by 5” initiative, which plans to provide such drugs to three million patients affected by the disease in poor countries by 2005.
United States online retail sales are on a strong growth track, and will probably hit -billion by 2010, a technology research firm said on Wednesday. Forrester Research pegged US online sales at about -billion this year, and sees a 14% annual growth rate that would bring the internet sector to about 12% of all US retail sales, from less than two percent currently.
Microsoft is close to releasing the biggest update ever for the Windows operating system, aiming to plug holes that have led to massive security problems for computer users the world over. Microsoft senior product manager Matt Pilla said late on Wednesday that it is expected to release the update for Windows XP, called Service Pack 2, ”in the coming days”.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-American slogans marched on the United Nations headquarters in Khartoum on Wednesday to protest against western troops being sent in to deal with the crisis in Darfur. The government-sponsored rally took place as the African Union said it would increase troop deployment in Darfur from 300 to 2 000.
Pamela Anderson has a new best friend: her ghostwriter. The 37-year-old model-actress added novelist to her résumé on Tuesday with the release of Star, published by Atria Books. But the former Baywatch babe didn’t do it alone. ”The first meeting we knew it was magic,” said Anderson about her not-so-invisible ghostwriter Eric Shaw Quinn.