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/ 17 January 2008
The National Assembly on Thursday passed the Bill for which it was specially called back from holiday. The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill was passed without debate, but with parties giving a three-minute explanation of their vote. The Bill passed by 266 votes to 52, with 12 abstentions.
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/ 17 January 2008
Anglo American, the world’s second-largest resources group, on Thursday strengthened its iron-ore portfolio by announcing a $5,5-billion (R37,9-billion) deal that will see it take control of key projects in Brazil. The group is holding exclusive negotiations with Mineração e Metálicos’s controlling shareholder, Eike Batista.
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/ 17 January 2008
Grieving relatives of the victims of the Skielik killings gathered outside their homes to comfort one another after leaving court where the alleged killer appeared briefly on Thursday. A man and two children were gunned downed outside their homes in the settlement, 10km outside Swartruggens in the North West, on Monday.
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/ 17 January 2008
"We have to start viewing $1 000 as a clear possibility for later this year," precious-metals consultancy GFMS said on Thursday. Releasing its <i>Gold Survey 2007: Update 2</i>, the consultancy projected an average gold price of $840 an ounce over the first half of 2008 with further increases possible later in the year.
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/ 17 January 2008
If the South African Reserve Bank needs further evidence of the dampening effect of higher rates on real economic activity, recent building data has been just that, according to independent economic analysts. A major challenge facing the government is also the extreme escalation in building costs.
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/ 17 January 2008
Kenyan police clashed with opposition members on Thursday in a second day of unrest over President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election, and the opposition said police had killed seven. In opposition strongholds in the capital, Nairobi, and the western town of Kisumu, police fired tear gas and live bullets and struck at least two people.
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/ 17 January 2008
Angel Gonzalez, one of Spain’s most prominent poets and member of a literary generation known for its opposition to the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, has died. He was 82. Gonzalez died on January 12 after being hospitalised with pneumonia.
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/ 17 January 2008
Actor Brad Renfro, former child star of such films as The Client and Tom and Huck who had battled drug abuse in recent years, was found dead in Los Angeles on January 14 at the age of 25. A Los Angeles county coroner’s spokesperson said Renfro’s cause of death was under investigation.
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/ 17 January 2008
Latvian tenor Sergei Larin, who starred at Milan’s La Scala and New York’s Metropolitan Opera during a three-decade career, has died at the age of 51, the Paris Opera announced. Larin died on January 13 in Bratislava where he had been a permanent soloist at the Slovak National Theatre since 1992.
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/ 17 January 2008
Richard Knerr, co-founder of the toy company that popularised the Hula Hoop, Frisbee and other fads that became classics, has died. He was 82. Knerr, who started Wham-O in 1948 with his childhood friend Arthur ”Spud” Melin, died on January 14 at Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, California, after suffering a stroke earlier in the day.