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/ 21 February 2007
Bombers and gunmen launched bloody attacks in several Iraqi cities on Wednesday, killing more than 20 people on the day Britain and Denmark announced they would begin withdrawing their troops. In the worst assault, a suicide car bomber struck in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, detonating explosives as a police patrol stopped him from entering the old city home to the revered Imam Ali Mausoleum.
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/ 21 February 2007
The United Nations has warned that a significant number of Arab militia, suspected to be the pro-government Janjaweed, is assembling in Sudan’s Darfur and that its purposes are not known. The Janjaweed is a militia that has been blamed by UN and African Union officials for numerous cases of rape, arson, looting and killing during the four-year conflict in Darfur.
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/ 21 February 2007
The safety and security budget is set to increase to R43,6-billion by 2010. According to the 2007 estimates of national expenditure, tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in Parliament on Wednesday, by that year there will be 190Â 000 police officers patrolling South Africa’s streets.
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/ 21 February 2007
Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that Britain would reduce its troop levels in Iraq by 1 600 over coming months, but its soldiers would stay in the country into 2008 as long as they were wanted. The planned withdrawal comes as British troops hand over responsibility for security in Iraq’s south-eastern region to Iraqi forces.
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/ 21 February 2007
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s 2007/08 budget proposals tabled in Parliament on Wednesday contain further relaxation of exchange controls. The requirement that South African companies obtain a majority shareholding in foreign entities or projects outside of Africa is abolished, and they now have to obtain only a 25% shareholding.
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/ 21 February 2007
South Africa needs to compete to attract more foreign direct investment, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday in reaction to the budget speech, adding that a corporate-tax rate cut would have been justified. Economist Mike Schussler told the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> that companies were being ignored in the Budget.
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/ 21 February 2007
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday paid tribute to teachers as ”the front line of our education system” — and then matched his praise with hard cash. ”The investments announced in this budget constitute a concerted effort to improve the quality of schooling in our country,” he told the National Assembly.
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/ 21 February 2007
The government wants to have its ”bold and ambitious” new social-security scheme, that could include a R30 billion-a-year wage subsidy, in place by 2010, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday. Manuel told Parliament the planned budget surplus created space for future social-security reforms.
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/ 21 February 2007
The government is confident it will remain within budget for hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup, says Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi. Speaking at a media briefing ahead of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Budget speech on Wednesday, he said he saw no reason why building stadiums would exceed the R17,4-billion allocated for the purpose.
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/ 21 February 2007
The Department of Defence’s budget has risen to R25,9-billion to meet the rising cost of peacekeeping operations and the military’s need to beef up its airlift capacity. Tabling his 2007/08 budget in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the South African National Defence Force had ”assisted significantly” in helping reduce a number of African conflicts.