The inflation rate targeted by South Africa’s central bank quickened to 6,5% year-on-year in July, coming in above market expectations due to higher food prices. Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday that CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) accelerated from 6,4% in June, beating the consensus forecast of a 6,1% rate.
The JSE was off its earlier lows by midday on Wednesday as investors looked for value after the recent sharp sell-off. After starting weaker on the back of a sharp fall on Wall Street overnight, the JSE was looking a little better late morning. The Dow shed 2% on Tuesday and Tokyo shares ended down 1,7%, but London shares have turned around.
The long-awaited coroner’s inquest into the death of former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer will begin on October 16, a Jamaican radio station reported on Tuesday. Radio Jamaica, citing Ken Pantry, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said more than 50 witnesses would be called at the inquest, to be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.
Durban Premier Soccer League club Amazulu have been fined R125 000 by the league’s disciplinary committee after arriving at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria for their recent game against Mamelodi Sundowns with socks that clashed with those of the home-based champions.
A group Johannesburg metro police and South African Police Service officers were receiving specialised training from the United States’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The course on detecting and preventing money laundering forms part of a continuing skills transfer from the US law enforcement authorities.
An award-winning children’s book based on the true story of two male penguins that raised a baby penguin has topped the list of works attracting complaints from parents, library patrons and others, the American Library Association said on Tuesday. And Tango Makes Three is the first of 546 works on the list.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=rugbyworldcup07_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/317644/icon_rwc_03.gif" align=left border=0></a>The All Blacks pleaded with New Zealanders to "keep the faith" at an emotional farewell on Wednesday as they left for France, intent on snapping a 20-year Rugby World Cup drought. To the strains of a stirring haka, the World Cup favourites made clear their determination to erase the chokers’ tag that has dogged them ever since they won the inaugural cup in 1987.
Zimbabwe’s state media on Wednesday called on the government to sever ties with Australia, accusing Prime Minister John Howard’s government of seeking to topple veteran President Robert Mugabe. ”There is no need to continue keeping up appearances when diplomatic ties between the two countries have irrevocably broken down,” the state-run Herald said.
United States Republican Senator Larry Craig on Tuesday vehemently denied he was gay, despite pleading guilty after being arrested by police probing lewd incidents in an airport bathroom. Craig (62) was arrested in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis-St Paul in June by a plainclothes police officer.
A new email urging recipients to watch a video of themselves on YouTube actually directs them to a fake site that infects their computers and turns them into spam machines, security experts have warned. A hacker group known as ”Storm Botnet” began dispersing the emails over the weekend.