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/ 16 October 2006
The JSE broke through the 23 000 level for the first time on Monday morning, propelled by firmer world markets and higher commodity prices. The overriding positive sentiment saw the bourse posting gains across the board. By 11.50am, the all-share index was up 0,73% at 23 006,57, having touched a highest-ever 23 015,93.
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/ 16 October 2006
Zambia’s mining companies, which have, until now, been treated to several tax rebates, may no longer have it so easy after the government’s upcoming review of agreements and plans to raise the mineral royalty tax from the current 0,6% to about 2,5%. Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande, who is also chair of the committee reviewing development agreements for mining firms, said: "The main point is that as the prices of copper and other metals continue to boom on the world market."
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/ 16 October 2006
The United Nations human rights watchdog has expressed serious concern about abuses in the Western Sahara, which is illegally occupied by Morocco, and recommends self-determination for the Saharawi people as the most effective remedy.
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/ 16 October 2006
Pundits have delighted in predicting the death of De Beers. For most of last century, De Beers headed up a world diamond cartel that regulated rough diamond supply and kept prices high. It sold between 80% and 90% of the world’s diamonds. Then things changed. The cartel broke up, the group sold its shares in Anglo American and de-listed, announcing a new strategy.
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/ 16 October 2006
More than 17 years after Iran’s late spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini launched a fatwa against him, British writer Salman Rushdie remains firm in his criticism of fundamentalist sects of Islam, fearing they will make the West surrender its values. ”We’re all living under a fatwa now,” the 60-year-old author, who is of Indian origin, declared last week in a long, open interview with the British daily the Independent.
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/ 16 October 2006
There is probably no state institution more tied to the fortunes of Jacob Zuma than the Scorpions — or, to give them their formal name: the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Directorate of Special Operations (DSO). Zuma’s political destiny lies in the hands of NPA boss Vusi Pikoli and his DSO investigators.
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/ 16 October 2006
Saddam Hussein never cared for truth or justice when he ruled Iraq and those who suffered under him might think it perverse to care about his fate now. But his trial for genocide and war crimes against the Kurds has degenerated into black farce, a chaotic travesty of what should have been due process to call him to account.
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/ 16 October 2006
There’s a war going on in the United States. A war on metros. After years of living under the cruel designer heel of those triumphant metrosexuals, poor old retrosexuals — alias ”regular guys” — are fighting back. Old-time, unself-conscious, un-moisturised masculinity is in. Guys are guys again, with manly, painstakingly shaped and trimmed beards.
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/ 16 October 2006
The claim that the Constitution contains a criminal’s bill of rights has been often made by the ”law and order” lobby. These spokespeople emphasise order above law, as if the denial of due process to accused persons will curb the crime wave. There is a nostalgia in the land for a return to the jackboot of apartheid policing: assault an accused, extract the confession and procure a conviction.
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/ 16 October 2006
African leaders were set to convene in Addis Ababa on Tuesday in a renewed attempt to resolve the crisis of Côte d’Ivoire, but observers here predicted a continued stalemate with the problem likely to be passed on to the United Nations. More than 10 000 people demonstrated on Sunday in Abidjan, calling for President Laurent Gbagbo to step down.