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/ 11 February 2008

Gates eyes pause in US troop cuts in Iraq

United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad on Monday he was in favour of a short pause in troop drawdowns from Iraq after about 30 000 soldiers have been sent home by July. Gates said the security situation in Baghdad remained ”fragile”, a comment echoed on the streets of the capital, which was rocked by two car bombings.

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/ 11 February 2008

Agreement on fees at DUT

The Durban University of Technology (DUT) and its student representative council (SRC) reached an agreement on outstanding student fees at a meeting on Monday. University spokesperson Nomondi Mbadi said the SRC had committed itself to ending student protests as an agreement in terms of outstanding student debt had been reached.

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/ 11 February 2008

No country for old men

Fifty years ago, the village of Slyozi in western Russia was a bustling place full of men, women, children, cows and pigs. Just down the road was a busy collective farm. People kept bees and looked after chickens. In the late 1950s, it got its first combine harvester.

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/ 11 February 2008

Zimbabwe mining hit by skills flight

Zimbabwe’s mining sector has lost more than half its skilled personnel in the last year, with workers lured abroad by the chance of boosting their pay more than ten-fold, an industry body said on Monday. According to a new study carried out by the Chamber of Mines, there are now 1 116 vacancies for professional and technical staff following the departure of workers.