Gases and welding products group African Oxygen (Afrox) is to invest approximately R350-millionin several major new gas production facilities around South Africa during the year. Craig Falconer, Afrox’s general manager process gas solutions, says this expenditure results from increased demand from the company’s existing customer base as well as by new business wins.
Six weeks after taking office, the Western-shunned Hamas government presides over Palestinian areas on the brink of collapse due to the stop in international aid flows. Long queues at empty petrol stations in the West Bank were the latest sign on Wednesday of the crisis after an Israeli company stopped deliveries the day before.
The poor Constitution. Its 10th birthday on Monday could never compete for coverage in the face of the Jacob Zuma rape-trial verdict. But Zuma himself linked the two. After being acquitted, he reportedly told his supporters that the media had tarnished his image, and hadn’t waited for the court to find him guilty. They had said ”I was guilty when I wasn’t”.
Europe faces an increasing threat from attacks with long-range missiles and could help avert the danger by building a missile-defence network, a senior North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) official warned on Wednesday. "There is a growing threat of long-range missile attacks," said Marshall Billingslea, head of Nato’s Conference of National Armaments Directors.
JSE-listed niche specialist banking and financial-services group Sasfin Holdings on Wednesday announced the acquisition of specialist Mauritian registered bank SBM Nedbank International from Nedcor Group for its net-asset value, plus a 5% premium, a total of approximately -million.
Police confiscated Mandrax tablets — worth about R60-million on the street — in a cargo depot at City Deep in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the crime intelligence unit, the organised crime unit, the South African Revenue Service, customs, and the police dog unit resulted in the confiscation of the tablets early on Wednesday morning.
German organisers confirmed on Wednesday that football fans would be allowed to consume alcohol at next month’s World Cup finals. The organising committee said it was always the plan to sell beer at the 12 World Cup stadiums, although police have the right to order alcohol bans for matches they consider to be at risk from hooligans.
Western powers will wait a ”couple of weeks” before pressing tough United Nations action against Iran and offer new incentives for it to renounce its controversial nuclear activities, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. Rice spoke after two days of intensive consultations on an approach to Tehran’s suspected effort to build a nuclear bomb.
A search for Alexandros T survivors continued on Wednesday, a week after the ship sank off South Africa’s south-east coast, the Greek embassy said. The tug Smit Amandla was still searching for 26 missing crew members on behalf of the ship’s owners, counsellor Dimitri Yannakakis said.
America’s most notorious polygamous sect is being investigated as an organised-crime operation, it emerged on Tuesday, in one of several signs that the net is closing on the group’s fugitive leader. Warren Jeffs, the self-declared prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, joined Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s most-wanted list at the weekend.