When internet consultant Giovanni Gallucci first joined the professional networking site LinkedIn two years ago, he felt like a pioneer. Now he’s one of millions. The 10 biggest social networking sites had more than 200-million visitors in March. Together, their users blogged, tagged, uploaded, messaged and viewed a staggering 34-billion web pages.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his visiting Italian counterpart, Romano Prodi, on Monday reiterated their countries’ determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. ”Iran cannot and should not have a military nuclear capacity,” said Prodi on his first visit to the Middle East since taking office in May last year.
Drug trafficking has risen sharply in Africa, which has become a favoured transit point for smugglers moving drugs from Latin America to Europe, a senior Interpol official said on Monday. ”Africa is a region where drugs are produced, consumed and trafficked,” said the international agency’s executive director of police services, Jean-Michel Louboutin.
An English court found three defendants guilty on Monday over a failed Islamist plot to set off bombs in London on July 21 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings that killed 52 commuters in the capital. Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed were found guilty of conspiracy to murder after a six-month trial.
Internet search giant Google said on Monday it has agreed to buy web security firm Postini for $625-million in cash, expanding its business software applications. Google plans to operate the company as a subsidiary in its Google Apps (applications) unit, which includes its email, calendar and documents applications.
Religious scholars gathered outside a besieged Pakistani mosque on Monday, asking Islamist militants to send out dead and wounded along with women and children, a day after authorities gave "a final warning" to surrender.
Striking metal and engineering workers handed over a memorandum to an employer representative in Johannesburg on Monday. The trade unions, led by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, demanded a 10% wage increase for the lowest grade and 9% for the highest grade workers for the next three years.
The World Bank agreed on Monday to give Mozambique -million in credit to help upgrade its road network, most of which was damaged and neglected during a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992. Mozambique will be exempt from interest and have 40 years to pay back the funds.
The circumstances that led to Nedbank’s loss of market share and the manner in which the retail business’s turnaround is being achieved offer compelling evidence of Nedbank’s significantly different profile within the South African banking landscape, says Nedbank Retail MD Rob Shuter.
Thousands of Harry Potter fans have signed a petition urging JK Rowling to keep writing novels about the boy wizard after she admitted she could ”never say never” to more books. The ”Save Harry!” petition calls on Rowling to reverse her decision to end the best-selling series with the seventh and final instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.