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/ 22 October 2007
Chinese President Hu Jintao’s most powerful rival in the politburo has been pushed into retirement in a reshuffle of the communist party’s inner sanctum. Zeng Qinghong, the Vice-President, was among three of the party’s most senior cadres who lost their places on the new central committee unveiled on Sunday.
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/ 22 October 2007
”Tell me, why this nasty war?” asks a character in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Almost 140 years after first publication of the epic novel, a nasty duel has broken out between rival versions of the weighty tome published in the United States. The argument between the two new translations is, fittingly, one of weight.
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/ 22 October 2007
Benazir Bhutto has vowed to press ahead with her campaign to become Pakistan’s next prime minister despite the threat of assassination, and called on the government to seek outside help in investigating last Thursday’s suicide attack. ”We will not be deterred,” she said, after visiting bomb victims at a Karachi hospital.
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/ 22 October 2007
World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report that also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown. Global oil production is currently about 81-million barrels a day — the report expects that to fall to 39-million by 2030.
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/ 22 October 2007
Poland’s liberal opposition party on Sunday night scored a stunning election victory over the populist nationalist Prime Minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and his twin-brother President, Lech, putting an abrupt end to their self-styled ”moral revolution” after only two years.
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/ 22 October 2007
A woman lost her legs during Rugby World Cup celebrations in Pretoria, police said on Monday. Spokesperson Inspector Paul Ramaloko said the woman, in her 20s, was injured when a car ran over her in Sunnyside on Saturday night after the Springboks won the World Cup tournament.
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/ 22 October 2007
The prospect of a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq in pursuit of fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) drew closer on Sunday after another round of clashes in the mountainous frontier region that left at least 12 Turkish soldiers and 23 PKK guerrillas dead, and saw a number of Turkish troops captured by the rebel group.
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/ 22 October 2007
The JSE dropped sharply in early trade on Monday, led south by Asian markets and early signs that European markets are tipped to slide amid renewed concerns about the United States housing turmoil. At 9.17am, the all-share index was off 1,44%. Resources fell 1,74%.
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/ 22 October 2007
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is not afraid to throw its weight around and rattle cages. A strong champion of shareholders can be a good thing, but when does size become dangerous? The PIC is the largest fund manager in South Africa. It controls about R791-billion, almost double its closest rival, Old Mutual, which manages R396-billion of South African assets.
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/ 22 October 2007
It must be dispiriting at times to be one of the local protesters in Aberdeenshire, on Scotland’s east coast, trying to stop the billionaire Donald Trump from building a $1billion golf complex along one of Scotland’s finest stretches of dunes. His visit to the site recently has reminded them — if they needed it — that they are pitted against one of the world’s most famous and famously ruthless businessmen.