Thousands of people in south-west China, who were evacuated after a weekend gas explosion, remained unable to return home on Tuesday with dangerous gas still leaking, officials said. The explosion on Saturday in Chongqing municipality led to the evacuation of 11 500 people from villages near the site of the leak.
Oak barrels are obsolete, according to United States vinters, who say aging wine in metal tanks with pieces of oak thrown in costs less and tastes just as good. Braving the stigma of being branded ”voodoo vintners” by traditionalists, oak alternative vinters have produced award-winning wines at bargain prices.
Women are increasingly becoming savvy investors and, despite a legacy of earning less than their male counterparts, are enthusiastically entering the investment arena, says First National Bank (FNB). The FNB Residential Property Barometer showed that 20% of buyers in the last quarter of 2005 were solely women, up from 15% in the previous quarter.
Police in the southern African country of Malawi have arrested a priest for ordering 15 women to strip while he conducted special prayers for them, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The priest from the Bible Believers, one of several Pentecostal churches that have mushroomed in the country, was arrested in the central Salima district after one of the women filed a complaint.
At deserted Sorake Beach on Indonesia’s earthquake-devastated island of Nias, a few local surfers paddle out at sea, looking back at a bay blighted by desolate, half-ruined buildings. After an 8,7-magnitude quake shook the island a year ago, killing more than 850 people, they are the only sign that Lagundri Bay was once a thriving destination for international surfers.
The knives are out for Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono, with Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya the latest among a growing list of senior government officials to criticise the reformist RBZ chief and call for his wide-ranging powers to be clipped.
The shortage of technically trained personnel, especially among women, was a challenge for the South African mining industry and more must to done to address South Africa’s skills shortage, Kumba Resources chairman Allen Morgan said. The group firmly believed that the best form of empowerment was training people.
General Motors (GM) expects its United States market share to continue to fall in the first quarter of this year due to aggressive competition, but said it won’t reverse its strategy of lowering prices and relying less heavily on discounts, GM marketers said on Monday.
The threat of a breakaway in formula one seemed to fade on Monday when the teams planning their own series submitted entry forms for the 2008 season. The Grand Prix Manufacturers Association — made up of Renault, BMW Sauber, McLaren Mercedes, Honda and Toyota — said it was signing up to meet a deadline of March 31 established by world governing body FIA and its president Max Mosley.
Australian authorities are beefing up the country’s fight against spam e-mail with a new code of practice for internet service providers and e-mail companies, officials said on Tuesday. The code of practice comes on top of an anti-spam law passed in 2004 that mandates fines of up to Aus,1-million ( 000) for people sending unsolicited e-mail.