Listed short-term insurer Santam has reported a 16% increase in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of June 2005, to 586 cents from 507 cents the previous year. The group declared an interim dividend of 108 cents per share, up from 95 cents in 2004.
October 13 is being declared Peel Day to celebrate the life and legacy of trail-blazing British Broadcasting Corporation disc jockey John Peel, who died suddenly last year at the age of 65, the public broadcaster announced. Gigs will take place across Britain in as many venues as possible, and organisers hope Peel Day will become an annual event.
Global resources group BHP Billiton on Wednesday announced that its attributable profit, excluding exceptional items, increased by 85,5% to $6,512-billion in the year to June 2005, from $3,510-billion previously. The group reported basic earnings per share for the 2005 year of 106,4 United States cents, up 88,7% from 56,4 US cents in 2004.
Former Western Cape leader of the Independent Democrats Lennit Max has blocked the swearing-in of his successor in the provincial legislature. His legal team was granted an interim interdict by a Cape High Court judge late on Monday to prevent the party’s new provincial leader, Neville Hendricks, from taking his place as a member of the provincial legislature on Tuesday morning.
The African National Congress has rejected a Johannesburg daily newspaper report on Tuesday that President Thabo Mbeki and ex-deputy president Jacob Zuma had met ”face to face” at an ANC national working committee meeting on Monday. The newspaper said that at the meeting, Mbeki had ”come down hard on key backers” of the embattled Zuma, who will face corruption charges in Durban on October 11.
It is as normal a place as any to grow up. And for Andreas Grassl the small Bavarian village of Prosdorf, with its duck pond, pear trees and rolling fields full of cows, was the place he called home. On Tuesday Grassl — now better known as Piano Man — was back home with his parents after a remarkable odyssey which took him from Germany to a beach in Kent, and then hospital.
Israeli forces on Tuesday emptied the last of 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank earmarked for demolition, after warnings of an apocalyptic battle to end Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s historic pull-out failed to materialise. The military had feared that removing the 8Â 500 settlers, plus thousands of supporters, might take up to six weeks.
Three-year-old Elihle Xulu shrieks with delight when he sees his mother, Nompumelelo, in the clinic’s garden. She kicks a soccer ball for him and he runs panting after it. Then he plants himself on the swing: "Push! Push!" he calls. The little boy’s exuberance is still like a miracle for Nompumelelo, who feared she might never see her son grow up. Both she and her son are living with HIV.
Banks are unarguably the most popular financial institutions. The reason for this is not hard to fathom; they serve as reservoirs for most people’s savings. They do this by pooling funds from savers and channeling them to borrowers with mainly business concerns. This process is described as financial intermediation.
The internet is stamp-collecting heaven. No matter what kind of data or content you’re into, you can be sure that there are others who are equally obsessive about it. Whether it’s pictures of parrots, gerbils or naked celebrities, or perverse combinations of all three of the above, there are folks studiously assembling the data and cataloguing it online for all to enjoy.