Oil prices rose in Asian trading on Thursday following a United States government report that showed an unexpected fall in gasoline stocks amid peak summer driving-season demand. Light, sweet crude for August delivery gained 39 cents to ,36 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The government’s final wage offer was accepted by the majority of public-service unions on Thursday, bringing an end to the longest public-service strike in South African history. The unions caucused on Wednesday night at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council in Centurion, south of Pretoria.
The JSE was higher at midday on Thursday but off its best levels as worse-than-expected PPI (producer price index ) data and a stronger rand discouraged buyers in the market. At 12pm the all-share index was up 0,25%. Resources were flat (-0,01%), while the gold and platinum indices fell 0,08% and 0,31% respectively.
Zimbabwe ordered a blanket freeze on Thursday on the prices of all goods and services, urging members of the public to blow the whistle on retailers who ignore the latest edict. Industry Minister Obert Mpofu was quoted by state media as saying that price controls — previously limited to essential goods — would be extended across the board.
The Richtersveld in the Northern Cape has been awarded world heritage status, becoming the eighth such site in the country, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday. The ”dramatic mountainous desert” featured harmonious interaction between humans and nature, said the World Heritage Committee.
South Africa’s producer price index (PPI) rose by 11,3% year-on-year in May from an 11,1% increase in April, Statistics South Africa data on Thursday showed. Commented Jean Mercier, Citigroup’s chief economist: "It’s a little bit worse than expected. The imports were a little stronger than expected."
President Thabo Mbeki has conveyed his ”warmest congratulations” to the United Kingdom’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. South Africa was convinced Brown would build on the United Kingdom’s constructive engagement in Africa, said foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
”Very cold” conditions were expected to persist over some parts of the country, the South African Weather Service warned on Thursday. The Eastern Cape, eastern Free State, Lesotho, western KwaZulu-Natal and Highveld areas of Gauteng and Mpumalanga would be affected, according to the service’s website.
Humanity will make the historic transition from a rural to an urban species some time in the next year, according to the latest United Nations population figures. The shift will be led by Africa and Asia, which are expected to add 1,6-billion people to their cities over the next 25 years.
A car bomb killed 25 people and wounded 40 on Thursday at an intersection in Baghdad where minibuses pick up and drop off passengers, Iraqi police said. In the southern city of Basra, a roadside bomb killed three British soldiers and seriously wounded another in the early hours of Thursday, the British military said.