The JSE extended gains at noon on Monday paced by miners on better metal prices, while banks rose on talks that the local monetary authorities were unlikely to raise interest rates. At 11.58am, the all-share index was up 1,10%. Resources gained 1,17%, the gold and platinum mining indices surged 1,35% and 2%.
Bali, the lush Indonesian island famous for its sun-kissed beaches, is drawing tourists in droves, and travel warnings that Islamic militants might strike again has done little to dampen the spirit. Almost five years after 202 people were killed in the bombing of a Bali nightclub, tourists are back enjoying the island’s nightlife and soaking up the sun on Bali’s palm-fringed beaches.
”I’d been given a ticket for parking illegally on the pavement near the Greek temples at Agrigento in southern Sicily more than a year ago. My excuse? Everyone was doing it and the car park looked full … I’d been a fugitive for too long and it was time to turn myself in.” Giles Elgood discovers it’s rather hard to pay a Sicilian parking ticket.
Pride and revenge are on Tom Boonen’s agenda when the second stage of the Tour de France takes the peloton from Dunkirk to Ghent on Monday. The stage is expected to end in another bunch sprint and having been beaten into third by Robbie McEwen in Sunday’s first stage, Boonen needs to shine in his home country.
”You are about to step into Africa” promises the sign outside a white tent in downtown Sydney, just a walk away from designer boutiques. World Vision last week launched One Life Experience, an interactive exhibition that gives visitors the chance to experience life through the eyes of impoverished African children who have been affected by HIV/Aids.
An identification system linked to a website and more publicity on indigent burial is needed for the hundreds of unclaimed bodies in Gauteng state mortuaries, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. DA health spokesperson Jack Bloom said there were now 607 unclaimed bodies in mortuaries.
A debate is intensifying inside the White House over whether President George Bush should try to prevent more Republican defections by announcing intentions for a gradual withdrawal of troops from high-casualty Iraqi areas, the New York Times said on Monday.
Nantucket is classic New England: sailing ships, cobblestone streets, grey shingle cottages with white trim, clam-chowder competitions — and class warfare. The latest outbreak is over a proposal by the island’s super-rich residents to try to hold back the Atlantic, which threatens to send their coastline mansions toppling.
Zimbabwean police have arrested more than 1Â 300 shop owners and business executives for defying the government’s orders to reduce prices. President Robert Mugabe’s government, concerned by rocketing prices that could trigger social unrest, had ordered shops and businesses to reduce their prices to levels used on June 18, or face arrest.
A ”huge contingent” of Johannesburg metro police will direct traffic in the central city on Monday for a march by metal and engineering workers. ”We are preparing for 22 000 demonstrators,” said chief superintendent Wayne Minnaar on Monday morning.