Shares in Japanese manufacturers tumbled in the aftermath of Friday's earthquake, as companies struggled to gather information from the stricken area.

Hitachi Power Africa fudged key issues this week in a media blitz intended to extricate it from the row over ANC business front Chancellor House.

Opposition parties have lambasted the ANC's turnaround on its investment in Hitachi, saying the ruling party is "playing the country for fools".

Limpopo residents on Tuesday filed a complaint with the World Bank about the $3,75bn loan sought by Eskom to help finance the Medudi power plant.

Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi may seek a government loan to help it cope with massive losses, its new president said on Monday.

Hitachi and Alstom have been awarded the R20-billion boiler and the R13-billion turbine contracts respectively for Eskom's Medupi power station at Lephalale in the Limpopo Province. "Medupi will be the biggest dry-cooled power station in the world," said Brian Dames, managing director of Eskom's Enterprises Division.

From clothes riddled with sensors to name tags that detect our moods, computing's next wave could unleash small devices that increasingly augment everyday activities with digital intelligence. That was the vision at a conference on "wearable computing" this week in Boston, where researchers showed off prototypes.