The European Commission is to step up pressure on Microsoft on Wednesday to respect a 2004 antitrust ruling, by slapping huge new daily fines on the defiant software group. With an irritated Microsoft flaunting the ruling, the EU’s competition watchdog is poised to impose fines as high as â,¬2-million ($2,55-million) per day backdated to December 15.
We have a peculiar set-up in South Africa when it comes to buying a house. Buyers and sellers are represented by the same agent, who is incentivised purely by the sale of the property at the highest price. This makes it impossible for an estate agent to act in the best interests of the buyer.
Wallabies coach John Connolly’s hopes of beefing-up the Australian front row to face South Africa’s monster pack this weekend were dashed on Wednesday when prop Rodney Blake lost a fitness race. Connolly made four changes to the team that played the All Blacks after suffering his first loss since taking over as coach earlier this year, dropping Mat Rogers to allow Matt Giteau to return from injury.
There is no such thing as an amateur investor: the moment you lay out cash for an investment, you’re a professional, playing the game for money. Professional investors on the stock market should equip themselves with the basics — which are the measures you use to decide whether or not a share is good value at a particular price.
No one expected the interest rate hike last month, and certainly not the rand and market fallout that followed. If you had been reading the press, there had been concerns around the price of the stock market and the fact that the rand was looking vulnerable as the current account deficit continued to balloon.
Police used clubs and tear gas to break up a political demonstration in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday that left several opposition supporters gravely injured, journalists and witnesses said. One protester lost his hand when a tear-gas canister exploded, according to eyewitness reports.
The figures are certainly impressive. According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s tourism industry has experienced growth of more than 100% since the demise of apartheid in 1994. But in a country struggling to overcome the effects of apartheid, these figures do not necessarily add up to a success story.
Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates flew to Pretoria on Tuesday to discuss the Aids pandemic with President Thabo Mbeki. Gates is in South Africa to attend a Microsoft-sponsored forum of African government and business leaders on ways technology can improve competitiveness on the impoverished continent.
In an ideal world, cars wouldn’t have to burn petrol and smog up the place. They would run on a combination of grass cuttings and rainwater and, as they passed, the air would be lightly perfumed with the heady smell of summer. And they would still be capable of doing 120kph, of course. And a bit more than that, when no one was looking.
The recent spate of online security breaches has got internet bankers concerned their funds aren’t as safe as they thought — but peace of mind is a mouse click away. Colin Thornton, MD of Dial-a-Nerd, South Africa’s fastest-growing IT support company that specialises in aiding computer users, says 50% of the company’s work now revolves around clearing PCs of spyware and adware programmes.