The JSE remained strong at midday on Friday with the overall market up 2% in line with firmer global markets and strong commodities prices. Following the decision by the United States Federal Open Market Committee to increase interest rates, Wall Street surged more than 2% on Thursday, posting its biggest one-day point gain in more than three years.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rebels have taken advantage of a power vacuum and grown stronger because the world’s attention has been distracted by Iraq, the commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) forces in the country said. British General David Richards said he was "optimistic" of defeating the movement.
The Balco drugs scandal in athletics may not have been a catastrophe on the scale of Krakatoa but, like the famous volcano, the dark clouds it produced cast a shadow long after the initial eruption. In the United Kingdom Dwain Chambers’ reinstatement to the British team for this week’s European Cup event has fuelled the debate about how any sport deals with drug cheats.
The Tri-Nations begins next week and Springbok rugby is in crisis. With the possible exception of 1998, that sentence might have come from any one of the 10 seasons the southern hemisphere showcase has been with us. Yet its familiarity makes it harder, not easier, to bear.
Amandla! DaimlerChrysler has pulled its controversial campaign for the new Mercedes-Benz SLK AMG convertible after Mail & Guardian readers complained of its insensitivity. The half-page advertisment depicts an obviously impoverished, raggedly dressed woman caught in the slipstream of a vehicle that is no longer visible.
South African armoured cars are being sold to the United States army for use in Iraq, despite the often-stated opposition of the government to the US-led invasion and strict laws forbidding the export of military equipment to conflict zones. Last year 148 South African-built RG-31 armoured personnel vehicles worth about R468-million were bought by the US army.
Jesters, the common wisdom insists, can say anything. Perhaps this is true; but whether they can and whether they should are sometimes two quite different things. In this instance, the jester is best spared. Sixty-four years ago, in a pretty chateau two hours from Paris, a Prussian major announced that an ironclad racial destiny required a show of ironclad will.
World Trade Organisation (WTO) members on Friday began another bruising attempt to revive the Doha Round talks on tearing down barriers to global commerce, as doubts rose about what they would be able to achieve. "We’re going to try," Canadian Ambassador Don Stephenson told journalists.
Israel blitzed Gaza from the air overnight, setting the interior ministry ablaze and killing a Palestinian fighter in the latest offensive aimed at freeing a soldier held by Palestinian militants. As the international community appealed for restraint to prevent an escalation of the conflict, Egypt said on Friday the ruling Hamas movement had agreed to secure the release of the soldier.
The filming of Aftermath — a two-part miniseries produced by the BBC and United States cable channel HBO, shot along Thailand’s tsunami-battered coast — has set off a debate over the merits of bringing the tragedy to the screen so soon after the disaster.