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.
Publishers vying for the rights to rocker Keith Richards’ autobiography have pushed up the Rolling Stones co-founder’s advance to ,3-million, according to a report. The bidding has narrowed down to two publishing houses, HarperCollins, a unit of News Corporation, and Little Brown, a division of Hachette Filipacchi.
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik has sold shares he held in French arms manufacturer Thint for R41-million. Shaik, who is serving a 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption relating to his relationship with African National Congress Deputy President Jacob Zuma, will not be able to access the money.
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.
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.
The Japanese love technology so much that now even sex toys are on the cutting edge. The "gPod," a phallic-shaped vibrator, is designed to respond automatically to sounds picked up by an accompanying handset, which can plug into anything from a telephone to a music player to a television.
Jose Mourinho cracked into a knowing grin, as if anticipating the incredulity to come, before offering up his reinvention. ”This year I will be more mellow, yes, mellow,” he said, the second mention delivered in his best mock Caribbean lilt. ”I’ve thought about it and it’s something I want to do.”
I wonder if Ntambi Ravele, the outgoing Premier Soccer League marketing chief, is aware of the number of times she has said that ”leadership is not about whether one is a man or a woman, but about what he or she can deliver”. If it is not a personal mantra, it should be. It’s certainly firmly embedded in her psyche.
A sensational 57th-minute goal from busy Benett Chenene gave Orlando Pirates a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Kaizer Chiefs at the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium on Thursday night and the right to oppose England’s Tottenham Hotspur for a second time at Loftus on Saturday in the pre-season Vodacom Challenge series of matches.
We’ve been here before. When Seve Ballesteros won the first of what would become five Major titles, the 1979 Open Championship at Royal Lytham, it brought to an end a nine-year drought for European golfers in the game’s four most important tournaments.