North Korea loses at least -million each week it stays away from multilateral talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive, a top United States negotiator said on Tuesday. North Korea stood to gain that amount of money in energy aid alone in return for abandoning its nuclear weapons under an agreement reached by the negotiating parties.
The British Broadcasting Corporation’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is ”incomplete” and ”misleading”, including failing to adequately report the hardships of Palestinians living under occupation, an independent review commissioned by the corporation’s board of governors has found.
The French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, on Tuesday vowed he would not resign over a bogus corruption scandal dubbed France’s Watergate and told Parliament he had been the victim of a campaign of ”slander and lies”.
The definition of the word ”shebeen” will be discussed in the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, court registrar Martie Stander said. ”The court will hear an application for the confirmation of an order of constitutional invalidity made by the Pretoria High Court in respect of the definition of shebeen contained in section 1 of the Gauteng Liquor Act, 2003,” Stander said.
South Africa’s banking sector continues to be profitable, well-capitalised and able to withstand considerable adverse shocks, according to the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) latest <i>Financial Stability Review</i>. The central bank said on Wednesday that the favourable macroeconomic environment had contributed towards improved asset quality, and provisioning against overdue accounts was considered adequate in aggregate.
England number two Tord Grip has admitted that they are devising a ”Plan B” for the World Cup after injuries to top strikers Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen. Rooney broke a bone in his foot on Saturday but has refused to give up hope of playing some part in England’s World Cup campaign, despite the scepticism of his Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Law enforcement agencies must act far more aggressively enforce the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, which makes it an offence to belong to a criminal gang and recruit others into a gang, official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said after visiting Cape Town’s gang heartland of Hanover Park.
The death row execution of an Ohio man was delayed briefly for one hour on Tuesday after he cried out as he lay on the lethal injection table, according to local media reports. The death row inmate was eventually executed after technicians adjusted an intravenous line.
Desperately needed anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/Aids patients are running out in Zimbabwe, reports said on Wednesday. Zimbabwe has been hard-hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic and at least one in five members of the country’s 11,6-million people is believed to be HIV-positive.
The JSE was at a fresh all-time high at noon on Wednesday, boosted by gains in resources as the bullion price moved through the $670 per ounce level. Several resources counters reached lifetime or long-term highs. By 11.47am, the all-share index was up 1% as resources climbed 1,96%, the gold-mining index jumped 2,02% and the platinum-mining index gained 1,50%.