The South African government has moved to stem the haemorrhaging of jobs in the mining industry by allowing mines to increase their power consumption to 95% of normal usage. Minister of Energy and Minerals Buyelwa Sonjica was cited in various media reports on Thursday as saying that mines would be allowed to up their power use by 5%.
South Africa paceman Dale Steyn, fresh from being named player of the series in the recent Bangladesh tour, is proud his name is now being bracketed with some of the world’s best. ”Just to be put in the same bracket like [Muttiah] Muralitharan, Glenn McGrath, Shaun Pollock or Shane Bond, it’s remarkable,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
Oil prices surged past $105 for the first time on Thursday as traders reacted to a surprisingly sharp fall in United States crude reserves and the plunging US dollar, analysts said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, hit $105,10 per barrel, topping the previous record of $104,95 set on Wednesday.
In February 2008 year-on-year growth in house prices in the middle segment of the market slowed further to a nominal 8,7% from a revised 9,9% in January, Absa said on Thursday. ”House-price growth has not been so low since the end of 1999, when it was 9,3%,” it said.
Sri Lanka was hit by scathing criticism over its human rights record on Thursday, with its government fingered over hundreds of ”disappearances” and an influential panel storming off the island. The move is a major blow to the image of the island’s government, which pulled out of a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels in January.
Egyptian police detained three leading members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday as part of a crackdown that the Islamists say is meant to disrupt their plans for local elections in April. Mahmoud Ghuzlan, a member of the Brotherhood’s guidance office, was taken from his Cairo home at 2am local time.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has won his high court bid to stop an activist claiming he is guilty of corruption over the arms deal. The ruling was handed down on Thursday morning. The court ordered that Terry Crawford-Browne be interdicted and restrained from ”publishing any matter in which it is alleged that the applicant is corrupt”.
Europe’s European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) won its share of a huge contract to build aerial tankers for the United States thanks in part to improved French-American ties, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was quoted on Thursday as saying.
South Africa’s new basket of producer price inflation stood at 10,4% year-on-year in January, official data showed on Thursday. Statistics South Africa said the headline number represented domestic output which measured 9,5% in December. On a monthly basis, PPI increased by 1%.
Four Sudanese civilians died when a grenade went off as they tried to retrieve a body believed to be of a French soldier killed after he strayed into Sudan from Chad, the army said on Thursday. A spokesperson said a group of Sudanese nomads found the body on Wednesday near the border with Chad.