Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is not just economics, but a matter of life or death, said Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the United Nations secretary general. The MDGs, approved by almost every government in the world at the UN’s Millennium Summit in 2000, include such targets as halving extreme poverty, reversing the spread of HIV/Aids and reducing child mortality.
Western Cape police have completed their investigation into the death of a rugby player in a match last week and are waiting for a decision from the public prosecutor, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Riaan Loots (24), a flyhalf for Rawsonville Rugby Club, died during a match with the Delicious Rugby Club last Friday.
Reports that North Korea has fuelled a long-range missile and was preparing to carry out its first test in eight years were called into question on Tuesday after more than a week went by without a launch. An initial report on June 18 quoted United States officials as saying that the Taepodong-2 missile had completed fuelling and ”all systems are go”.
The South African Congress of Trade Unions is concerned that the latest Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) again show only very slow growth in formal employment, despite the growth in the economy in the past six months, it said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the QES, formal employment rose by about only 300Â 000 in the year to March 2006.
The JSE was a mixed back just after noon on Wednesday, with players switching out of resources — the recent stars of the market — and into banks and retailers which were sold down sharply. Overall, the air was one of caution ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates due on Thursday night.
The recent hawkish statements by the central bank on inflation seem to have been backed up as the consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target, was up 4,1% year-on-year (y/y) in May after a 3,7% y/y increase in April, according to Statistics South Africa numbers on Wednesday.
EADS co-chief executive Noel Forgeard was being questioned on Wednesday by France’s parliamentary finance committee on why he sold millions of euros’ worth of shares in the European aerospace group just before it announced delays in deliveries of its Airbus A380 superjumbo.
The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target, was up 4,1% year-on-year in May after a 3,7% y/y increase in April, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
The European Commission is to propose making South Africa a ”strategic partner” by forging a pact similar to ones already struck with the United States and China, EU sources said on Tuesday. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has set out its ideas for a partnership in a document to be considered by the EU’s 25 member state governments and EU lawmakers.
One of the parents whose baby died recently during a power failure at an East London hospital plans to sue the government, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday. Another parent was seeking legal advice. Parents of the dead babies were outraged at comments by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in Parliament that they would not receive compensation.