Cape Town: South Africa has denied a media report that it plans to cancel Christmas.
The Sunday Times newspaper ran a story quoting a task team evaluating the number of public holidays as warning that no holiday should be regarded as sacred in multi-faith South Africa.
"I would like to reassure all of you that there is no such report which has been tabled before me," Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told a parliamentary committee yesterday. "There has not been that recommendation."
Last year the Advertising Standards Authority banned a post office ad asking children to write to Santa Claus, saying it was "profiting from the natural credulity of children" and perpetuating "a falsehood that could break the fragile spirits of the already disillusioned youth of South Africa".
London: A police sniffer dog died of a suspected overdose while out hunting for drugs, British police said yesterday. Todd, a 7-year-old Springer spaniel, had been looking for drugs in a field and car in Preston when his handler noticed he was looking unwell. He was taken to a vet and then rushed to an animal intensive care unit at Liverpool University, displaying symptoms of ingesting amphetamines, a police spokeswoman said.
Ashbagat: Knowing the highway code is no longer enough to get a driving licence in Turkmenistan, whose autocratic President Saparmurat Niyazov has told future drivers to cram his "sacred" writings to qualify.
"A 16-hour course of the sacred Rukhnama is one of the most important innovations in the (driving learning) programme ... to ensure future drivers are educated in the spirit of high moral values of Turkmenistan's society," the state news agency said. Niyazov, Turkmenistan's "president for life" and focus of a flourishing personality cult, wrote the Rukhnama (Spiritual World) as a moral guide to his desert nation of six million. The book is already part of the school and university curriculum and a copy of Rukhnama is kept next to the Koran in the nation's state-controlled mosques.
London: Britons pine for their pets while on holiday and are more likely to miss their animals than their family, according to a survey.
One in five UK holidaymakers feels sad about being apart from pets while away compared with only 6 per cent who miss family and friends, the poll from holiday company Thomas Cook found.
Some people even miss housework while away, although 34 per cent said they did not miss anything when on a break, the survey of 800 UK residents found. - (Reuters)