A cyclone hit the coast of Pakistan on Tuesday, dumping torrential rain over a thinly populated region days after about 230 people were killed when a storm lashed the country’s biggest city, Karachi. Authorities in Pakistan and neighbouring India have evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas after weekend storms and flooding killed nearly 400 people.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in northern England on Tuesday as officials warned a dam could collapse following severe flooding that has killed three people. A 68-year-old man and a teenager died in Sheffield and another man, in his 20s, was killed in Hull as torrential rain brought chaos to much of England and Wales.
Get your fingers ready. Apple’s iPhone, which launches on June 29, is leading a new wave of gadgets using touch-sensitive screens that react to taps, swishes or flicks of a finger. The improvements promise to be slicker and more intuitive than the rough stomp of finger presses and stylus-pointing required by many of today’s devices.
Apple’s founder and saviour Steve Jobs has revolutionised culture, up-ended the music world and set his sites unabashedly on the ”smart phone” industry. With the United States launch of iPhones on June 29, Jobs aims to transform the ”smart phone” industry in ways that iPods did to music and Macintosh computers did to lifestyles.
Google says in a court filing that it is pressing for an extension to the United States Justice Department’s oversight of Microsoft’s business practices, most of which is set to expire in November. Over the past year, Google has complained to state and federal regulators about Microsoft’s ”Instant Search” program.
Unruly taxi drivers who think they are immune to road rules and terrorise passengers by forcing them to commute in their vehicles should be dealt with, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Ann Barnes, the party’s spokesperson for traffic in Johannesburg, said authorities had to start ”confiscating taxis and charging drivers”.
Confusion reigned at a press conference of the Western Cape branch of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Cape Town on Tuesday. After calling a media briefing on the ”suspension” of the public-service strike, Cosatu organiser in the province Mike Louw told journalists: ”We’re not suspending the strike.”
South African transport utility Transnet on Tuesday reported a 15% increase in operating profit to R10,7-billion in the year ended March. Revenues grew by 8% to R28,2-billion, fuelled by strong volume growth across most of the company’s operating divisions. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 12% to R11,5-billion.
The JSE remained lower across the board at noon on Tuesday with platinum stocks the hardest hit on talk of a likely strike in the sector, while lingering inflation jitters ahead of key data later in the week added to the bearish undertone. At noon, the all-share index was off 0,71%. Resources gave up 0,90% and the gold- and platinum-mining indices were down 1,11% and 2,72% respectively.
The proposed monorail link between Soweto and Johannesburg was ”not logical” and needed a concrete submission, the Transport Department’s director general said on Tuesday. ”What has been in the press doesn’t present itself as logical. We are not adverse to any innovative proposal but it needs to be dealt with properly,” Mpumi Mpofu said.