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/ 1 February 2007
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto on Thursday announced a 43% leap in full-year net profit to a record ,44-billion and forecast continued strong demand for commodities. The figure was higher than market expectations of a ,4-billion after tax result and compared with the ,22-billion net profit, notched-up in 2005.
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/ 1 February 2007
Computer hackers are off and running trying to find vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system, putting to test the software maker’s claim that it is the most secure Windows program to date. The new version of Windows became available to consumers on Tuesday.
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/ 1 February 2007
An advertising campaign for a late-night animated series went seriously wrong on Wednesday when police in Boston mistook the ads for explosive devices and shut down half the city. The discovery of five suspect devices sent authorities into a tailspin, closing off major roads, suspending rail services and river transport and causing major disruption in the city as police investigated.
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/ 1 February 2007
A television network’s marketing campaign went badly awry on Wednesday, causing a day-long security scare in Boston. Apologising for Boston’s biggest security alert since the September 11 attacks, Turner Broadcasting said it had placed electronic devices to promote an animated cartoon.
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/ 1 February 2007
Bird flu has claimed its first human victim in Africa’s most-populous nation, killing a young Nigerian woman due to graduate from university and be married this year, officials and the victim’s fiancé said. An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu hit Nigeria last year, but no human infections had been reported until Wednesday.
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/ 1 February 2007
The Buffalo City council has approved a R6,7-million plan to prevent East London’s central business district from being plunged into darkness for up to two weeks. Faced with increasing public ”jitters” over the perilous state of East London’s electricity supplies, the council also voted to commission an electricity ”master plan”.
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/ 1 February 2007
Silvio Berlusconi is not a man who gives in easily. He has yet to concede that he lost the last Italian general election — and that was 10 months ago. So his wife, Veronica Lario, knew it was going to take an extraordinary manoeuvre to drag words of contrition out of him after he was overheard propositioning a couple of showgirls at a gala dinner.
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/ 1 February 2007
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Amsterdam late on Wednesday after wrapping up a four-nation African tour that he said opened his eyes to the immense challenges facing the world’s least developed continent. Ban flew in from Nairobi where he held talks with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and huddled with UN staff.
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/ 1 February 2007
Adelaide Frances Tambo will be remembered as one of South Africa’s key heroines of the liberation struggle. The nursing sister from Vereeniging, who married African National Congress president Oliver Tambo in 1956, died on January 31 2006 aged 77 and will be best remembered as a beacon of hope to many exiled activists during the liberation struggle.
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/ 1 February 2007
The pensioner stepfather of a 44-year-old Witbank businesswoman has agreed to pay her R300 000 following claims by the woman that he raped and sexually abused her over a period of 13 years. The woman initially claimed R1,8-million in damages from the elderly man in the Pretoria High Court.