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/ 25 February 2008
Tourist guides from across Gauteng gathered under a hot marquee for the International Tourist Guides’ Day at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg last week — and, for a change, were on the receiving end of an educational tour. "We are who we are through others," were the words of Lungi Morrison, of the Gauteng Tourism Authority.
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/ 25 February 2008
The first microbicide to reach the final phase of testing has failed to prevent HIV transmission, researchers announced this week. Testing of the microbicide, Carraguard, was carried out over a three-year period on 6 000 women in South Africa and was completed in March last year.
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/ 25 February 2008
Under a scorching summer sun, a swarm of 400 furious women engulfed the scruffy electricity office of Banda district in north India. They were all dressed identically in fluorescent pink saris. For more than a fortnight they and their families had had no electricity, plunged into darkness at dusk and stewed in sweat at dawn. But they had all been sent bills demanding payment for power they had never received.
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/ 25 February 2008
Pakistan has shown the door to mullahs and delivered a stern warning to Pervez Musharraf, backing the opposition to Musharraf’s despotic handling of the judiciary, to his high-handednessĂ‚Â against independent media and to political cronyism. Musharraf’s future is left looking bleak, while Pakistan gets a fighting chance to put its house in order, writes Hassan Abbas.
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/ 25 February 2008
As Southern Africa braces for cyclones and more heavy rains, economic analysts warn that the floods already engulfing the region are likely to impact badly on inflation and other fundamental economic indicators. "Naturally, the floods will have an effect," says Oliver Saasa, a consultant economics professor at the University of Zambia.
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/ 25 February 2008
The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) is reviewing alternative energy sources to keep the city’s traffic lights operating and intersections flowing during blackouts. The use of solar-powered lights and lights running on ordinary UPS batteries are being considered. Johannesburg already has 15 intersections that use battery power on a pilot basis, while one site uses solar power.
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/ 25 February 2008
About 20 000 stolen — but recovered — cars worth an estimated R2-billion are needlessly crushed in South Africa every year. Many are in poor condition, but some are top of their range and in excellent nick. The cars destroyed are those recovered by authorities, but not reclaimed by their owners, usually because they have been paid out the full insurance value.
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/ 25 February 2008
While "oligarchs" from the era of former president Boris Yeltsin were purged by the Kremlin, a new breed of super-rich tycoons has thrived under Vladimir Putin, bringing the number of dollar billionaires in the country to more than 100. Russia now has the most billionaires in the world after the United States, which has 415. Germany is third with 60.
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/ 25 February 2008
Fears that China might export inflation to the rest of the world were heightened this week when Beijing announced the sharpest rise in the cost of living in 11 years. With food prices rising rapidly following severe new year storms, the annual inflation rate in the fast-growing developing economy reached 7,1% last month.
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/ 25 February 2008
South African consumers who want to help prevent the next round of load-shedding by buying an energy-efficient TV will find themselves in the dark.