The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has cautioned taxpayers not to be misled by irresponsible tax advice when they complete and submit their income-tax returns. Sars has taken note of public calls from certain lobby groups who are advising people incorrectly on how to complete their tax returns in a manner of protest.
In terms of the new National Credit Act, insurance companies, under prescribed conditions, can access consumer credit information to assess applications for insurance. However, consumers must give their consent before an insurance company is allowed to pull their credit data from credit bureaux for insurance assessment purposes.
Rescue services are using boats to evacuate residents of a flooded settlement near Philippi outside Cape Town in the wake of a massive cold front that has brought heavy rain to the Western Cape. ”Metro [rescue services] and the police are using rescue boats to evacuate people,” Disaster Risk Management Centre manager Walter Solomons said.
Typing the movie title Bourne Ultimatum into Google brings up an enticing promotional offer as the first result. Join in The Ultimate Search for Bourne, it demands. This is an alternative reality game (ARG), developed by media company Big Spaceship for Google and Universal Pictures.
”The whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista.” That’s what Gianfranco Lanci, the Italian president and CEO of Acer, Taiwan’s biggest computer company, told the German edition of the Financial Times on Monday. ”Also, that won’t change in the second half-year,” he added.
Traditional media companies face a very modern dilemma: should their websites be free or paid-for? The trend recently has been to plump for the free model and bring in revenue via advertising. This means that websites that had in the past been subscription-funded have started to move to the ad-supported model.
Sales at diamond-mining giant De Beers fell 7% in the first half of 2007 on the back of reduced supply of gems to its trading arm while underlying earnings rose 5%, the group announced on Friday. Its total sales fell to ,4 billion from ,66-billion in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2006, interim results showed.
China defended its stance on Darfur on Friday and urged patience as Western critics warned that Beijing’s reluctance to back stronger action in the troubled Sudanese region could blight Olympic Games goodwill. China has pressed Sudan to accept United Nations peacekeepers alongside African Union forces struggling to quell bloodshed in Darfur.
A planned Republican fund-raiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in the United States by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons. The Manchester Republican Committee is inviting party members and their families to a ”Machine Gun Shoot” where, for , supporters can spend a day trying out automatic weapons.
Militia crews firing mortars and rockets have been hitting Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone with more accuracy in the past three months because of training from Iran, a top United States general said on Thursday. The prize targets in the sprawling zone are the US embassy and Iraqi government buildings.