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/ 22 January 2008
A KwaZulu-Natal pilot project — proven to reduce court backlogs and overcrowding in prisons drastically — may be rolled out countrywide, if the government comes to the table with funding, the Justice and Constitutional Development Department said on Tuesday.
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/ 22 January 2008
Battered by slow revenue growth and the popularity of social-networking websites, Yahoo! is poised to lay off hundreds of workers, according to published reports. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have both reported on the slumping internet icon’s cost-cutting plans, citing people familiar with the matter.
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/ 22 January 2008
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma will be spending the rest of this week at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. ”He has been invited there in his capacity as president of the ANC,” party spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said on Tuesday.
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/ 22 January 2008
China’s state-backed miners have looked at Xstrata but are unlikely to bid for it, leaving Brazil’s Vale or Anglo-American best placed to snap up the Anglo-Swiss miner. Vale, which produces a fifth of the world’s iron ore, said on Monday that it was in talks with Xstrata about a takeover.
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/ 22 January 2008
The savage gridlock that has characterised power failures in major centres recently could soon be a thing of the past if the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) plan to install solar-powered traffic lights comes to fruition. Thousands of traffic lights have been earmarked for solar-power installations in a number of cities and towns.
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/ 22 January 2008
The United Nations World Food Programme has begun flying in food and shelter to thousands of victims of heavy flooding in Mozambique, the agency said on Tuesday. More than two tonnes of mosquito nets, tents and plastic sheeting were flown in by helicopter on Monday to the Mutarara region, while the first deliveries of food were expected to be made on Tuesday.
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/ 22 January 2008
Russian Maria Sharapova produced a blistering performance to overpower world number one Justine Henin 6-4 6-0 in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Tuesday. The fifth seed was in ebullient mood, smashing 30 winners as she took a tight first set and ripped through the second to line up a semifinal against Serbian third seed Jelena Jankovic.
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/ 22 January 2008
The United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday slashed benchmark US interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in an emergency bid to lend support to a US economy some fear is on the verge of recession. The Fed’s action took the key federal funds rate, which governs overnight lending between banks, down to 3,5%.
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/ 22 January 2008
Glenn Agliotti, accused of the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble, will have his trial date set when he reappears in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on July 2. Both prosecuttion and defence said a delay in the case was necessary because of other ”developments”. Prosecutor Thanda Mngwengwe said the Kebble case was ”interlinked” with other matters.
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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s neighbours are feeling the pinch of Eskom’s problems as they are plunged into darkness and face power failures of their own. Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all reported power failures and their governments have had to move quickly to clarify the reliability of future power supplies.