Fuel giant Sasol has rolled out the big guns in its fight to resist the imposition of windfall taxes, presenting a 256-page report to the team tasked with recommending whether such taxes should be applied to liquid fuels and, particularly, synthetic fuels in South Africa.
For Sergeant Lucie Alain, it was the unrelenting fear of an unseen enemy’s rocket salvos raining down on the Afghanistan camp that kept her from catching even a few hours’ shut-eye. ”Attacks came at night, even as you walk through camp you listen and think, ‘Where can I find some shelter in case rockets start coming down?”’ the 37-year-old mother-of-two from Quebec recounts in the lobby of a Cyprus hotel.
Bolivia has suspended its project to reclaim control over its oil and natural gas, throwing the nationalisation programme into chaos. In a statement released last Friday, Bolivia’s Hydrocarbons Ministry announced that the ”full participation” of the state energy company, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, was ”temporarily suspended due to a lack of resources”.
The mainland European economy, buoyed by a resurgent Germany, is expanding at its fastest rate for six years, outstripping the United Kingdom and the United States, fresh figures showed last week. Domestic euphoria over the football World Cup held in Germany boosted the country’s economy, which grew by 0,9% in the second quarter, the fastest growth for more than five years.c
Authorities on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar incinerated 61 000 chicken eggs on Tuesday in their continuing bid to check the threat of bird flu to the community. ”We seized the egg consignment imported from the Tanzanian mainland commercial capital of Dar es Salaam last weekend,” said Khatib Suleiman Bakari.
A quick check of my online horoscope on Wednesday morning helped allay the fear that had kept me awake most of the previous night: the planets were still favourably aligned for my career, health and love life. And so, indirectly, Pluto was safe.
Does ”between a rock and hard place” summarise the current debate on environmental impact assessments and their relationship to development? Perhaps in sentiment, but not specifically. The Latin version of the idiom is more telling: ”In front the precipice, behind the wolves.”
The newspaper awards kick tabloid reporters in the teeth every year, writes Madala Thepa.
A Bloemfontein man has miraculously survived, with no serious injuries, a 1 000m jump after his parachute failed to open properly during his first high-altitude jump, the Volksblad reported on Monday. Benno Jacobs (35) fell into a ploughed field near the Tempe airport at Bloemfontein after his 60-second jump.
By last month, 41 years had gone by since what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo had held democratically contested elections, and it is no wonder that citizens had grown disillusioned with the political process. But the current electoral process has provided a brief window of opportunity to change that mindset, writes Stephanie Wolters.