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.
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.
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.
Does black-owned media in the US offer better coverage of minority issues than its mainstream counterparts? Sean Jacobs says not, which explains why shaking up the racial make-up of South African journalism is not enough.
Some say "Web 2.0" is just the latest meaningless buzzword in a long list of internet hyperbole. But Matthew Buckland argues that such labels can be useful.
Kenya’s Parliament reconvened amid the usual grandeur and opulence that accompanies the occasion. While the rulers sated themselves with a sumptuous dinner and stroked one another’s egos with speeches overflowing with praise, Betty Tom lit a fire 400km away at Orongo in western Kenya and gave thanks to God.