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.
Israelis are expected to elect a government on Tuesday that plans for the first time to set the final borders of the Jewish state — ending years of expansionism but still holding on to significant parts of the occupied territories. Opinion polls suggest that the Kadima party founded by the stricken prime minister, Ariel Sharon, will see off all opposition.
Animal rights activists accused Canadian authorities on Monday of fomenting trouble to prevent them from scrutinising the controversial seal hunt that started over the weekend. Seven activists were arrested on Sunday for getting too close to a vessel involved in the hunt while trying to document the slaughter on Sunday.