Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) called on Monday for South Africa to play an unofficial role in peace talks after the government rejected an appeal for South African mediation. The LRA said it wanted members of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to participate.
SanDisk Corporation introduced the world’s highest-capacity flash-memory MP3 player on Monday and priced it to take a bigger bite of the market dominated by Apple’s iPods. The player features eight gigabytes of flash-based memory, expandable to 10 gigabytes, which translates into the potential to store as many as 2 500 songs.
Retirement funds should include hedge funds in their investment plans to ensure they construct optimal portfolios to protect South Africa’s limited savings, said Warren Brown, the head of fixed interest and financial modelling at Old Mutual. Brown was reacting to concerns about the lack of a clear regulatory and taxation regime for hedge funds.
The JSE was in positive territory at midday on Monday, boosted by rebounding commodity prices. London-listed Anglo American — the bourse’s heaviest weighted stock — dominated trade on reports of a possible $80-billion bid for the company. By 12.03pm, the all-share index added 1,29%.
It is already common knowledge, on the beaches and in the cafes of mainland Europe, that Americans work too hard — just as it is well known on the other side of the Atlantic that Europeans, above all the French and the Germans, are slackers who could do with a bit of America’s vigorous work ethic.
Customs controls in free-trade zones worldwide must be tightened as smugglers are exploiting the easier movement of goods to shift counterfeit items, a conference on combating intellectual piracy was told on Monday. Smuggling of fake goods through these zones is a growing problem because of the mushrooming of free trade enclaves, said Richard Heath, the global anti-counterfeiting counsel at consumer goods giant Unilever.
Up to 88 migrants trying to reach Europe from Africa were feared dead on Sunday night after two disasters in the southern Mediterranean. In one of two fatal incidents, a boat carrying about 120 people sank after an apparent collision with an Italian naval vessel sent to rescue them.
Parliament is calling on all South Africans to get artistic and take part in designing its new emblem. According to the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, Parliament belongs to the people, hence the need to involve all South Africans to partake in designing its new identity.
World cricket boss Percy Sonn said on Sunday he was disappointed at South Africa’s decision to abandon the tour of Sri Lanka for security reasons, but declined to impose sanctions on the Proteas. ”I am deeply disappointed at their decision to go home,” Sonn told a media conference in the Sri Lankan capital.
Italian Loris Capirossi, starting from second in the grid on a Ducati, won the Czech MotoGP, the 12th leg of the world championship, in Brno on Sunday 16 years after his maiden victory in the 125cc category. Capirossi took an early lead in the 22-lap race, at one point opening up a near-eight-second gap on the chasing pack.