The Netherlands-based Mittal Steel, the world’s top steel maker, said on Wednesday that it plans to reduce its global steel production by one million tons in the third quarter of 2005, following similar cuts in the second quarter. The cuts will be equally split between Mittal’s North American operations and those in Europe and the rest of the world.
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday cited fears about the ”diminution” of Afrikaans as an issue that the ruling African National Congress should address in leading the country’s social transformation.
The names of the three people killed when a parcel exploded outside a house in Grahamstown this week were released on Wednesday. The victims were Justin Martin (52), Johannes Kortrooi (58) and five-year-old Leonardo Lottering, who died in hospital on Tuesday.
Alarmed by the increasingly bitter dispute over the relocation of the Somali transitional government, United Nations chief Kofi Annan is urging a ”serious dialogue” between rival factions to resolve the row that threatens peace hopes for the lawless nation.
A 78-year-old grandmother landed on top of another grandmother aged 85 after falling from a fourth-floor apartment window in Shanghai, a news report said on Thursday. The younger of the two grandmothers, named as Granny Zheng, accidentally toppled out of the window of her apartment and bounced off an awning on her way to the ground.
Thai fishermen caught a 293kg catfish, believed to have been the world’s largest freshwater fish ever recorded, a researcher said on Thursday. The 2,7m Mekong giant catfish was netted on May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and was weighed by Thai fisheries department officials,
Group of Eight leaders meeting in Scotland next week are unlikely to agree on a ”Marshall Plan” for Africa that will see massive aid flow to the continent, South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel told French news agency AFP in an interview on Wednesday.
Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile has again accused administrators of failing to implement racial transformation in sporting codes, specifically rugby, a South African Broadcasting Corporation news broadcast reported on Wednesday. ”I have looked at the Saru [SA Rugby Union] Constitution and it is totally ‘deurmekaar’ [confused],” he said.
South Africa is gearing up to host Africa’s Live 8 concert with about 40Â 000 people expected to pack central Johannesburg on Saturday to raise poverty awareness on the continent. But despite South Africa’s biggest star, Nelson Mandela, giving his official blessing to the concert, organisers would not say whether he would attend the event.
The JSE Securities Exchange was slightly weaker just after noon on Thursday, with a stronger rand against sterling weighing on London-listed resources heavyweights Anglo American and BHP Billiton. Gold stocks glistered, however, despite getting little help from the gold price.