The JSE was up sharply by midday on Tuesday, adopting the strength in overseas markets that were driven higher by a powerful performance on Wall Street overnight. By 12.03pm on the JSE, the all-share index had collected 1,01%. Financials advanced 2,02% and banks collected 2,86%, while industrials added 1,06%.
Schabir Shaik, former financial adviser to Jacob Zuma, on Tuesday lost his final appeal against fraud and corruption charges and a 15-year prison sentence. Shaik’s appeal to bring new evidence was dismissed and the court ruled that his trial was not unfair.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday gave the strongest hint yet that he will remain at the centre of power in Russia for the forseeable future, saying the possibility of him becoming prime minister after the presidential election in March was ”entirely realistic”.
South Africa’s acting chief prosecutor said on Tuesday he would investigate police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi amid reports a warrant had been issued for his arrest for links to organised crime. Mokotedi Mpshe, acting director of the National Prosecuting Authority, said he could confirm an investigation of Selebi was under way.
Pickled cows, elephant dung paintings and a transvestite potter — the Turner Prize deserves its reputation as one of art’s most controversial awards. Now art lovers can decide for themselves if the prize rewards pretentious twaddle or cutting edge British art.
Striking Johannesburg municipal workers will not be marching along the city’s streets on Tuesday — because it’s raining. ”We will gather outside the Metro Centre for a short while to hand over another part of our memorandum and that will be it,” South African Municipal Workers’ Union spokesperson Dumisani Langa said.
A suicide bomber killed 12 Afghan police on a bus in Kabul on Tuesday, a police official said, the second such attack in the capital in four days. ”The report we have indicates that so far 12 police have been killed and 15 wounded,” said the official who declined to be named.
Fearing that it will lose out financially, much of the book industry is resisting internet pioneers’ vision of putting the world’s entire store of published information online. Some European libraries have portrayed the bid to digitise 500 years of books and newspapers as an imperialist plot.
The 1 000 Darfur rebels waited until sunset, the end of the Ramadan fast, to begin their assault. Some of the outgunned African peacekeepers, caught by surprise, fought back. Others fled into the scrublands, and at the end 10 of them were dead.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Monday he would travel to Zimbabwe this month to recommend multilateral mediation by African heads of state to try to solve the crisis in the Southern African country. ”Mbeki is a man of goodwill … [but] we should tackle the problem at the level of several heads of state, including Thabo Mbeki,” he said.