Reeling from the bombs apparently aimed at its precious tourism infrastructure, Egypt has to come to terms with what Britain faced earlier lst month: that its terrorists are probably homegrown. Not only do they come from within, they also have a more sophisticated and fanatical network than was previously thought.
Artists shouldn’t look to politicians and government officials to take corrective action when they become aware of corrupt or illegal activities, writes Mike van Graan.
London’s metropolitan police said on Friday they have arrested three men during two raids in the west of the capital, while refusing to confirm that among them were suspected bombers who targeted the city last week. On Friday, armed police launched two raids in west London and shut down one of the city’s main stations.
"Didn’t it all come together rather well in Johannesburg last weekend? I thought it did, but then again, most people with the slightest interest in rugby would have told you that the Springboks’ Achilles-heel back line was pivotal in their victory. Now, the Tri-Nations is about to start and South Africans have good reason to feel bullish," writes Rob Davies.
A two-year-old boy was found safe and sound after surviving for four days alone in a German forest, police said on Thursday. The boy named Nabil, whose parents are Yemeni, was found by two German soldiers sitting in a pool of water at a spot about 3km from the playground where he had gone missing on Sunday.
A Japanese mugger with a fetish, who longed for his boyhood friend’s eyeglasses, was arrested with 154 pairs of glasses or contact lenses he allegedly seized by force, police and reports said on Friday. Construction worker Toru Nagasawa was caught after allegedly punching a man and forcing him to take off his contact lenses.
United States Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick belted out "Oh my darling Clementine", Australia’s foreign minister asked for a date, and the Russians adopted a <i>Star Wars</i> look. Foreign ministers performing skits at an Association of South-East Asian Nations dinner in Vientiane brought levity to a week of meetings.
A young British man who shot a nightclub doorman received a reduced prison sentence on Friday after a judge noted that he was evidently not an experienced gunman, having managed to accidentally shoot himself in the process. Dwayne Eversley (21) was jailed for 12 years at London’s Central Criminal Court.
South African investment holding firm Hosken Consolidated Investments’ (HCI) shareholders on Thursday approved a mandatory offer by HCI’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Mercanto Investments, to acquire all — or part — of the issued shares in the capital of Johnnic that HCI and its subsidiaries do not already own.
Trade union Solidarity on Thursday said in a statement that the remuneration of steel producer Highveld Steel’s directors had increased by between 50% and 200% in the previous financial year. The trade union said that at the same time, the company was offering its workers a wage increase of only 5%.
Vienna’s Leopold Museum has invited the public to come in the nude on Friday to view an exhibition of erotic works by Austrian masters such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. The exhibition is titled <i>The Naked Truth: Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Other Scandals</i>.
South Africa’s June 2005 producer price index (PPI) rose by 2,3% year-on-year (y/y) from a 2,4% y/y increase in May, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Thursday. The month-on-month (m/m) increase was 1,5% in June compared with a 0,5% rise in May 2005.
South African-based pulp and paper giant Sappi had a tough third quarter and reported a headline loss of four United States cents per share for the three months to June after headline earnings per share of 12 cents in the March quarter and 18 cents for the June 2004 quarter.
"To have the levels of carbamazepine in my body tested, I caught the train from Muizenberg to Fish Hoek at 5pm and walked a kilometre to have blood taken. It’s not a walk that would usually tire me, but today it’s exhausting. The lab office should be open till 5.30pm, but it’s closed and dark", writes former <i>Mail & Guardian</i> journalist David Le Page.
This week the American media reported, in somewhat offended tones, that people were dying in the heatwave currently incinerating the south-western states. Real people, mind you, not just immigrants and Democrats. Indeed, 20 people have died in Phoenix alone.
Sources who, quite naturally, refuse to be named, have revealed that the SABC is currently running pilot programmes for a new and exciting series in the popular Survival format. The basic idea of the programme is to show how a typical SABC television news programme is conceived and assembled. To this end, an easy-to-digest and entertaining metaphor is used.
The three-day strike by municipal workers that started on Wednesday is just the first of many to come between now and February next year, Congress of South African Trade Unions secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Incidents of poor discipline and the strewing of rubbish marred marches in Jo’burg and Cape Town.
An artist appealed on Tuesday for the return of an art work that consisted of a bottle of water on a plinth, saying he fears it was stolen and then drunk. United States artist Wayne Hill had devised the art work, a two-litre clear plastic bottle filled with melted ice from the Antarctic, to highlight the dangers of global warming.
Indonesian surgeons have delivered a 27-year-old baby from a middle-aged housewife who had carried the dead body inside her because she was too poor to have it removed, doctors said on Wednesday. A team of 15 doctors operated on Tuesday to retrieve the 1,6kg petrified baby from the 54-year-old woman.
Indonesian anti-graft protesters on Wednesday demanded an unorthodox punishment for the country’s numerous corruption offenders — coop them up in cells with bird-flu-infected chickens. The request was made during an anti-corruption rally outside the attorney general’s office in Jakarta.
A powerful typhoon drenched eastern Japan with rain on Tuesday, narrowly missing Tokyo but delaying flights and traffic and causing a sea accident. Typhoon Banyan hit Japan at Kamogawa city in Chiba prefecture, 70km south-east of Tokyo, shortly after 8pm, the meteorological agency said.
India’s National Aids Control Organisation is asking soft-drink manufacturers to include HIV/Aids awareness messages in their advertisements.
The secret of British Prime Minister Tony Blair famous all-year healthy glow has been revealed — his spends almost twice as much on make-up as the average British woman. Figures released by Downing Street show that Blair spent more than £1 800 (R20 900) on make-up and make-up artists over the past six years.
An escaped Israeli convict experienced first-hand the perils of hitchhiking after he thumbed a lift on Sunday only to be picked up by a prison warden who drove him straight back to jail. "When he leant over to ask which direction we were heading, I saw he was the prisoner we had been looking for nine months," the officer said.
An original eye patch worn by legendary Israeli chief of staff and statesman Moshe Dayan is being offered for a staggering $75 000 (about R501 000) on internet auction site eBay. The sellers obtained the eyepatch from a bodyguard of the late minister, who acquired it and a .38 calibre revolver minutes after Dayan died in 1981.
Listed South African specialist chemicals and explosives group AECI saw its headline earnings per ordinary share increase by 23% to 194 cents for the six months to June 30, from 158 cents for the first six months of 2004, the company said on Tuesday.
The United Association of South Africa and the South African Transport
and Allied Workers’ Union began a meeting with South African Airways (SAA) at noon on Monday in the latest effort to break a pay deadlock, Uasa said. Both unions had rejected an earlier SAA pay offer.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) remained firmer at midday on Monday, but was off its record high reached in early trade. While a weaker rand was buoying the bourse, gold stocks and banks were paring gains. At 12.03pm, the all-share index was up 0,25% at 15 061,19. It reached a record 15 117,24 in early trade.
The country’s second-biggest short-term insurer, Mutual & Federal, on Monday reported a 93% increase in headline earnings per share from 124 cents to 239 cents per share for the six months ended June. Headline earnings for the half-year increased from R303-million to R593-million.
London police released on Friday closed-circuit television images of four men they are "urgently" seeking in connection with the attempted suicide bombings the day before on London’s public transport system. The grainy images showed casually dressed men — one wearing a dark-blue "New York" sweatshirt.
Japan is living up to its reputation as a safe country with the World Exposition, where only four of the 12-million visitors have been pickpocketed, the event’s chief said on Thursday. Even some of those may have simply misplaced their belongings, expo secretary general Toshio Nakamura said.
South African Airways (SAA) and three striking unions have agreed to mediation, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration said on Friday afternoon. The strike has seen 72 domestic, regional and international flights out of 96 cancelled.