Sony shares rose on Thursday following a newspaper report that the Japanese electronics giant is set to beat its own profit forecast thanks to strong sales of flat-panel televisions. Sony could exceed its operating profit forecast of ¥100-billion ($844-million) by 10 to 20% in the year to March, the <i>Nihon Keizai Shimbun</i> said.
One of Sicily’s most senior anti-mafia prosecutors forecast a war inside Cosa Nostra on Wednesday if its leaders failed to agree on a successor to Bernardo Provenzano, the ”boss of bosses” seized on Tuesday. Investigators believe the fugitive godfather established a ”directorate” of up to seven mobsters to run the organisation.
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) chairperson Paris Mashile has a problem. Looming legislative changes and an exodus of top staff are threatening to push the troubled telecommunications and broadcast regulator into full-blown crisis. At least six senior managers have resigned since January and three members of the seven-person council are due to step down in June.
Hijacker: ”Ladies and gentlemen. Here the captain. Please sit down, keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb on board. So sit.” Air traffic controller: ”Er, uh … calling Cleveland centre … You’re unreadable. Say again slowly.” Hijackers: [to passengers] ”Don’t move. Shut up … Don’t move. Stop. Sit, sit, sit down. Sit down … [in Arabic] That’s it, that’s it, that’s it … [in English] Down, down … ”
Italy’s centre-left leader, Romano Prodi, brushed aside fears yesterday that his election victory could be reversed, but admitted it could be more than a month before the country had a new government. ”Our victory is safe,” he said as electoral officials set about re-examining more than 40 000 contested votes which the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, insisted could change the outcome.
Two Eastern Cape government ministers, sacked from office this week, have left unanswered questions about alleged abuse of state resources and financial mismanagement amounting to millions of rands in one of the country’s poorest provinces. Premier Nosimo Balindlela fired health minister Bevan Gogqwana and tourism and economic affairs minister, André de Wet, with immediate effect on Monday.
Eight council employees in the Ekurhuleni Municipality have defrauded the government of R120-million over the past year and imposed "apartheid-like" segregation at their workplace, an internal forensic investigation has found. The investigation resulted in charges of fraud, theft and corruption being brought against the eight municipal employees.
The Jacob Zuma trial, which has topped the national agenda since March 6, is set for its denouement. A lot is at stake: the next president, the battle against HIV and Aids, the role of women in society … With not only matters of state but also of life and death at stake, it’s no wonder then that the former deputy president’s supporters have since the beginning of the trial sought the intercession of the ancestors and God to help their man.
So Cape Town city manager Wallace Mqoqi has been fired. Though the Mother City’s new mayor, Helen Zille, may disguise her rationale in the techno-speak of contract law, she wants her own manager in place. And preferably one who talks DA. Zille fired Mqoqi because he toyi-toyi’d with the then ruling African National Congress ahead of the election.
Caroline* from Harare comes to Jo’burg twice a month to shop. She does not like the place, but needs to come here to support her family. "I buy things here, so I can sell them in Zimbabwe," says Caroline, who buys mostly industrial goods, such as rubber, for making couches. There are thousands of so-called cross-border shoppers like Caroline who come to Jo’burg every year.