The Hamas-run Palestinian government said on Tuesday that it was working to release Alan Johnston, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Gaza correspondent, saying that it knew who was responsible for his kidnapping. ”This issue is on its way to being solved, God willing,” said Ghazi Hamad, a government spokesperson.
Late on Monday Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went head to head for a key demographic group: Jewish voters. Supporters from the Clinton and Obama camps flooded the hallways of the Washington Convention Centre, distributing fliers and shouting through loudhailers in their bid to draw people in.
The crisis in the United States sub-prime mortgage market was the hot topic on the JSE just after midday on Wednesday as the local bourse, together with its global counterparts, followed Wall Street south. With commodities also taking strain, the local bourse was hit by a double whammy.
Proudly South African investment in domestic equities is a paying proposition by a huge margin. The trouble is, not enough South Africans think so and consistently lose out — never more so than in the past three years. In the first eight weeks of 2007 alone, foreigners accumulated a net R20-billion in South African shares.
Dell’s latest launch has really taken off. Unfortunately for Dell’s crumbling profitability, it’s a website called IdeaStorm, not a new PC. IdeaStorm is designed to get ideas and feedback from Dell users, and the mechanism is much the same as Digg: people make suggestions and everybody votes for the ones they like best.
The scene is a Starbucks in Regent Street, London. Two 23-year-old women from Trinity College, Dublin, are doing a five-minute pitch from a laptop to a couple of serious venture capitalists. It is the cappuccino version of TV programmes such as <i>Dragons’ Den</i> and it is telling us a lot about the vitality of the new internet start-up boom in the United Kingdom.
For years, video-game watchers have complained that there is no mainstream channel for independently produced games. Xbox Live Arcade and now the PlayStation 3’s E-Distribution Initiative have shifted the industry mindset, with Microsoft and Sony actively courting the indie development scene.
Zimbabwean opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai and 49 other opposition activists were released from hospital into their lawyers’ custody late on Tuesday, one of the lawyers said. Tsvangirai was detained on Sunday, along with dozens of other activists, after a police crackdown on an opposition rally.
Under-strength Zimbabwe and debutants Ireland may look like a lightweight contest in a World Cup group which also includes mighty West Indies and Pakistan. But both need a win on Thursday if they are to have any hope of progressing in the tournament.
Asian stocks plunged on Wednesday after Wall Street chalked its second-biggest drop in four years and rattled already nervous markets worldwide. The tumble extended a couple weeks of international trading turmoil rooted in concerns about overheated global markets and slower growth in the American economy.