The Cairns Group of agricultural exporting nations warned on Wednesday of "dangerous" consequences if major trading blocs do not agree to significant cuts in tariffs and farm subsidies by an April deadline in world trade talks. "It would be dangerous to assume that the significant moves that are required by major members can be left until the eleventh hour. They cannot," the group said.
The United States Federal Reserve, under its new chief Ben Bernanke, on Tuesday night raised interest rates by a quarter point to 4,75%, their highest level in nearly five years, as it sought to head off inflationary pressures and cool the economy. The move is the 15th the US central bank has made since former chairperson Alan Greenspan began raising rates from a 46-year low of 1% in mid-2004.
The ruling Kadima party won Tuesday’s general election in Israel, according to exit polls, but with fewer seats than the Acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, wanted in order for him to claim a mandate for his plan to impose Israel’s final borders. In his victory speech, Olmert said he would press ahead with his plan to separate from the Palestinians.
It might have been mere coincidence, or it might have been the result of a sinister conspiracy stretching back centuries, involving the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucians, and dark forces within the Vatican. Either way, the author of The Da Vinci Code and one of the men he has been facing in court found themselves locked in a new battle on Tuesday, with rival United States book launches on the same day.
A fire in the Johannesburg city centre killed 12 people and left 33 others injured in the early hours of Wednesday, Johannesburg emergency services said. ”The cause of death of all 12 appears to be traumatic asphyxia — they suffocated because they couldn’t get out,” spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said.
Prosecutors presented a strong case in the fraud trial of former Enron chief executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, but the defence still has a chance to win acquittal, legal analysts said. "I think the government should be fundamentally quite happy," said John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor specialising in white-collar crime.
Australia braced for the second powerful cyclone to strike in two weeks as a major storm bore down on the country’s mineral-rich west coast, forcing a halt to some mining and oil drilling operations in the region. Cyclone Glenda was upgraded to the highest category-five tropical storm overnight but later weakened slightly to a category-four.
The KwaZulu-Natal department of education has awarded 53 teaching bursaries for students to pursue qualifications in areas in which it is experiencing or expecting educator shortages. A total of R2,2-million has been set aside to fund the studies of these students.
Capitalism may have its flaws, as the recent <i>Sunday Times</i> list of SA’s mega rich showed. But at least in business the best get rewarded, which is more than David Bullard can say for journalism.
Community television will be entering a growth phase in the months ahead, as the regulator prepares to grant four-year broadcasting licences to a range of applicants. Mike Aldridge outlines the international models and local challenges.