Media and entertainment holding group Johnnic Holdings on Tuesday reported a 124% leap in pro forma headline earnings from R55-million to R123-million for the year ended March. It attributed the increase to improved earnings from the entertainment and media businesses, among others.
A rocket attack on an Israeli town killed a three-year-old boy and a man on Monday as Palestinian militants stepped up their assaults on Israeli targets before the removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. The attack on Sderot is the first in which one of the hundreds of rudimentary rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip in the past three years has proved fatal.
A Singaporean student appears to have thumbed her way into the Guinness Book of Records after smashing the previous fastest time for text-messaging a 160-character text on a cellphone phone. The Singaporean media reported on Monday that Kimberly Yeo (23) clocked 43,24 seconds in the final of a competition organised by the city-state’s main telephone company, SingTel.
The board of South African steel giant Iscor has approved a proposal that the group’s name be changed to Ispat Iscor Limited. This in is line with the global practice of LNM Group — the world’s second-largest steel maker, which last week gained control of the South African group — to add the word Ispat to the names of its subsidiaries.
A traditional cleansing ceremony to honour the memory of 50 South African freedom fighters, killed by forces of the apartheid regime in collaboration with Swazi security forces, concluded at the weekend in Swaziland’s central commercial town, Manzini.
The South Africa/China binational commission was an example of the deepening relations between the two countries, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday. Zuma and his counterpart, Zeng Qinghong, will sign various bilateral agreements including agreements on education, on citrus exports from South Africa to China and between Sasol and a consortium of Chinese companies.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Tuesday brushed off the threat posed by Linux software in Asia and pushed for the use of the Windows operating system in Malaysia. Unlike expensive Windows operating systems, Linux is available for free over the internet while piracy of Windows software in Asia is rampant.
<li><a href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=117756" class="standardtextsmall">Shuttleworth returns to the source</a>
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor could be brought to trial in the near future if the government of Liberia issues a request, said United Nations officials visiting the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, on Friday. Taylor left Liberia on August 11 for exile in Nigeria.
Vodacom Mozambique, a subsidiary of South African mobile services provider Vodacom, last week reached the 100 000 customer milestone after commencing commercial operations in one of Africa’s most promising economies in December last year.
Atlanta Bread executive Basil Couvaras plans to return to South Africa to face fraud charges, a spokesperson said. ”Basil is voluntarily going back to South Africa. We are working on the details of when that will occur,” said Jane Langley, spokesperson for Couvaras and his brother, Jerry, who was arrested by South African officials in March.