screen Norman King Oliver Reed began his film acting career through friends he made drinking in pubs, and has died at the age of 61 while out drinking with friends in Valetta, Malta. But while in front of the camera, he was a professional whose distinctive looks and fine speaking voice made him a striking […]
ocean’ Ann Eveleth The sale of up to 10-million ounces of International Monetary Fund (IMF) gold reserves will do little to break the 30-year cycle of debt that has trapped Africa in poverty for decades. The R9-billion to R18- billion such a sale could generate is a mere drop in the ocean of developing-world debt. […]
Ivor Powell If Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has a message for voters outside the political hothouse of KwaZulu-Natal, it was largely lost on the electorate of Reiger Park near Boksburg this week. At the end of proceedings, a youth with a knife scar across his throat, where somebody had evidently tried to slit […]
Alex Brummer in Omaha, Nebraska A record 15 000 shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway – the world’s most eclectic investment group – gathered in Omaha, United States, recently in the hope of catching the sage words of their chair and CEO Warren Buffett at the group’s annual meeting. The crowds attending the meeting at the Ak- […]
Loose cannon Robert Kirby In his triumphant world television publicity scoop last week the Reverend Jesse Jackson caused some serious ancillary damage. One would like to think that Jackson’s spectacular intercession in the Balkans tragedy was merely because he could simply no longer contain his Samaritan instincts. But it rather tempts logic not to consider […]
Salman Rushdie tells Sam Wollaston why his new novel is about the greatest band in the world – from India On a warm August evening, Salman Rushdie walked on to the stage and looked out over a sea of screaming fans. It was hard to see much beyond the first row, the photographers and security […]
Donna Block and Mungo Soggot Jonty Sandler and Nthato Motlana, the two founders of New Africa Investments Limited (Nail) who quit this week, were threatened with being summarily axed unless they accepted a R50-million golden handshake each, market sources said. The two executives announced they were quitting their executive positions at the flagship empowerment group, […]
THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange is to close for business on December 30 and 31 to avoid any possible glitches caused by the Y2K bug, the JSE said in a statement Wednesday. It said key personnel would be at work on those two days to assist in the orderly transition of JSE systems to the year […]
Something very odd is happening on Wall Street. As the Dow Jones powered towards the 11 000 landmark this week, applauded enthusiastically at the closing bell, Nasdaq, home of the glamorous technology and Internet stocks, has been moving in the opposite direction. The two markets are increasingly being decoupled. On some 40% of trading days […]
The Ministry of Health says it needs proof of the effectiveness of AZT before it can accept discount offers for the drug. Aaron Nicodemus reports The Ministry of Health has so far refused to accept Glaxo Wellcome’s offer of a reduced price for anti-retroviral drugs, and maintains that there is not enough proof that anti-retroviral […]