An earthquake with a magnitude of 7,5 struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday, less than 100km from the provincial capital of Chengdu, the United States Geological Survey said on its website. The quake was felt across much of China and as far west as Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, about 3Â 300km away.
Pulling a sickie over the long weekend with a fake doctor’s note has led to fraud charges being laid against a Kempton Park employee and the arrest of the man allegedly selling the notes. The scam was uncovered when a manager at car rental company Avis in Croydon decided to check all the sick notes presented by employees too ill to work on April 28 and 29.
Rupert Murdoch has abandoned his -million attempt to buy Newsday in an about-turn likely to relieve campaigners pressing for diversity in United States media ownership. Murdoch’s News Corporation withdrew its bid for the Long Island daily because it was unwilling to match a -million offer from a cable television operator, Cablevision.
South African industrial group Barloworld lifted half-year earnings per share from continuing operations by 105% and forecast strong growth driven by its equipment unit on Monday. Group headline EPS rose to 345 cents and operating profit increased 30% to R1,29-billion for the six months to 31 March.
A senior Egyptian mediator will on Monday present to the Israeli government a new ceasefire proposal agreed with the Hamas Islamist movement that could halt the conflict in Gaza and begin to resolve the mounting economic crisis that has engulfed the strip.
Gaza’s population has been reduced to a ”subhuman existence” where basic humanitarian needs are going unmet in the face of rapidly deteriorating conditions, according to a senior United Nations official. An Israeli economic blockade on the Gaza Strip has produced shortages of fuel and basic supplies and has closed most private businesses and pushed up poverty rates.
Barack Obama, setting his sights well beyond Tuesday’s primary against Hillary Clinton, on Sunday began preparations for a summer series of debates against the Republican John McCain. While Clinton campaigned doggedly in West Virginia, which holds its primary on Tuesday, the Obama camp consolidated its claim on the Democratic nomination.
A lack of funds has forced the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to cut by more than half the number of districts in drought-hit Ethiopia it serves, the food agency said on Monday and appealed for ,4-million in aid. WFP said shortages would prevent it from providing food supplements to malnourished mothers and children.
President Thabo Mbeki’s role as a mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis took another knock after disclosures that he ignored the advice of two judges he commissioned to observe that country’s 2002 general elections. Mbeki commissioned judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke to observe the controversial Zimbabwean election in 2002.
Inflation targeting is likely to be reviewed, because if South Africa’s policymakers only use interest rates as the tool to fight inflation, the country is in for a nasty generational learning experience as the policy will not be removing the cause of inflation, said Chris Hart, chief economist from Investment Solutions.