Roth, Grass, Updike, Lessing, McEwan, Spark, Garcia Marquez. It read like a rollcall of modern literature’s titans and anyone scanning the shortlist for the inaugural Man Booker International prize could have been forgiven for missing the giant of Albanian letters nestling among them.
Two Israeli soldiers on Thursday claimed they were ordered to carry out a series of revenge attacks on Palestinian policemen after the killing of six soldiers by militants. One soldier, from the Yael reconnaissance unit, described a ”crazy blood revenge rush” on the day of the attacks three years ago. ”I really enjoyed it,” he said.
EBay has agreed a m deal to buy Shopping.com, as part of an effort to offset slowing growth in its core business of online auctions. The deal is eBay’s largest acquisition since it paid ,5-billion for the online payment firm PayPal in 2002. Shopping.com is a price comparison website, allowing users to hunt down the cheapest prices for whatever they are trying to buy.
Over the past fortnight, the African National Congress has maintained that R11-million it received before last year’s elections was an ordinary donation from a private company. But Imvume Management was no ordinary private company, judging by its chief executive’s CV.
You’ve probably spotted the Citroën C4 robot dancing across your TV screen in the past few months, but you may not be aware that it wouldn’t be dancing at all without the expertise of Cape Town-based Atomic Visual Effects. The commercial was directed by South African-born director Neill Blomkamp.
Schabir Shaik’s trial, the Oilgate controversy and the intense public debate over the Telkom empowerment process have focused attention on whether the Malaysian model — with its interpenetration of politics and economic empowerment — is being duplicated here.
A Namibian legal activist has expressed dismay that controversy raging in South Africa over the efficacy of vitamins as a treatment for HIV/Aids has reached his country. Delme Cupido, coordinator for the Aids Law Unit of Legal Assistance Centre — a Namibian public-interest law centre — wrote a letter published in <i>The Namibian</i> newspaper.
Like Bill Clinton and the Starr Commission during the Monica Lewinsky affair, this week’s dispute between AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) turned on what constitutes a relationship. "If you put the meetings, the financial support and the house together, clearly it’s a relationship," Anneke van Woudenberg, author of the Human Rights Watch report, <i>The Curse of Gold.</i>
Anglo American South Africa CEO Lazarus Zim says the company has investment projects totalling $6,2-billion planned over the next four years, of which $4,2-billion is destined for Africa. Anglo American has invested R100-billion in South Africa over the past five years, more than any other company.
This week’s results by banking group Absa emphasise the bank’s attraction to Barclays, and the British bank could make it soar. On Monday, South Africa’s largest retail bank unveiled an increase in headline earnings of 23,3% and an average return on equity of 25,5%, a figure that analysts expect to see increase.