Crude oil prices rebounded in Asian trade on Wednesday after dropping below overnight as Hurricane Dean weakened and it appeared the storm would have no lasting effect on Mexican oil production. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose by 27 cents to ,84 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
One of President Thabo Mbeki’s VIP protection unit bodyguards will appear in court on Thursday after allegedly shooting a man dead at a shebeen in June. Timothy Sabata (35), a police sergeant, is to appear in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court in Cape Town on charges of murder and attempted murder.
Zimbabwe has allowed businesses to raise the prices of some basic goods and services, slightly easing a price freeze that has left shop shelves empty and deepened an economic crisis. President Robert Mugabe’s government had ordered a price rollback to June 18 levels in a bid to stem inflation of more than 4 500%.
Australia have fired the first shot in a psychological war of words with New Zealand, claiming the All Blacks have passed their peak before the World Cup has even begun. New Zealand are strong favourites to win the tournament starting next month in France, but the Australians suspect the All Blacks have misjudged their timing.
Burundi’s acute political deadlock and the collapse of peace talks have raised fears that the nation might fall back into the deadly conflict that devastated the country for more than a decade. "I’m scared because I have this feeling that the country is going backwards instead of forwards," said Cyrille Barekebuvuge, a shopowner in the centre of the capital.
Sharp showed a 29mm-thick prototype TV on Wednesday, which the Japanese electronics maker said was the thinnest, lightest and lowest energy-consuming liquid crystal display (LCD) in the world. The 25kg display, which has a tuner and other TV features encased in its panel, weighs about half of current LCD panel TVs and consumes about half their power, according to Sharp.
Tuareg-led rebels in Niger said late on Tuesday they had killed 15 government soldiers in a clash at Gougaram in the West African country’s remote Saharan north, where uranium is mined. The rebel group said a large convoy of military vehicles had advanced towards the town of Iferouane on Monday, prompting Tuesday’s clash.
Algeria saw foreign trade for its mining sector post positive results in 2006 for the first time in 11 years, with a surplus of ,58-million, the Energy and Mines Ministry said on Tuesday. The official APS news agency said it was ”the first positive balance” since 1996.
As many as 60 people within the CIA read a cable referring to two of the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks on America on September 11 2001 before the event, yet the information was not shared with the parts of the organisation able to do anything about it, according to the agency’s own internal investigation.
The John Vorster Avenue offramp from the N1 south highway in Centurion will be closed to traffic for the greater part of Wednesday after a toxic spill, Tshwane metro police said. Spokesperson Louise Britz said the highway remained closed after about 10Â 000 litres of sulphuric acid spilled on to the offramp when a truck overturned on Tuesday afternoon.