The finance minister and the reserve bank governor met representatives of banking groups Absa and Barclays plc on Sunday to discuss the bid by the United Kingdom-based group to acquire a stake in Absa. Barclays has applied for regulatory approval to acquire a majority shareholding of Absa and such a transaction requires the consent of the Finance Minister.
Syria will withdraw all its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon by April 30, it was announced on Sunday. This means that Damascus intends to meet the unofficial deadline for withdrawal set by Washington. The move was announced by United Nations envoy Terje Roed-Larsen after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The conservative wing of the Roman Catholic hierarchy on Sunday launched a pre-emptive strike, aimed at blocking any swing towards a more progressive stance following the death of Pope John Paul II. The pope’s body will be moved to St Peter’s basilica on Monday to lie in state.
Iraq broke its political deadlock on Sunday when Parliament finally elected a speaker and paved the way for forming a new government nine weeks after the country’s election. Deputies appeared relieved and buoyant after selecting Hajem al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab who is currently Industry Minister, to chair the 275-seat Assembly.
And so, with nothing particular in our minds except to travel away from the city for a few hours, we found ourselves on a dirt road on the edge of the Magaliesberg, the City of Gold dimly visible through the autumn haze behind our backs. We were looking for something — a quiet spot to retreat to, perhaps, in days to come. A fantasy of life far from the madding crowd. Yeah, right.
The South African economy is enjoying a boom of almost unprecedented proportions. Household spending is leading the way and firms are playing catch-up. The public sector is adding to what is now a highly inadequate structure of roads, ports and railways. But a local economist says South Africa must give business freedom from regulation, and perhaps weaken the rand.
The United Nations last week condemned advertising campaigns by Dr Matthias Rath which portray anti-retroviral therapy as toxic and promote vitamin therapy as an alternative. In a statement released last week, the World Health Organisaton, the UN Children’s Fund and the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids lashed out at Rath’s advertisements, saying they were "wrong and misleading".
Michael Tsai points to a large map on the wall of his office in Taiwan’s national defence ministry. It is dotted with red symbols representing dozens of Chinese missile, air and naval bases within easy shooting range of the capital and other major Taiwanese cities. Whatever Beijing may say about its peaceful intentions, Tsai suggests, this map illustrates the reality of the military threat that lurks 160km to the west.
France has recommended that the United Nations extend the mandate of international peacekeepers in Côte d’Ivoire, by one month, until it becomes clear whether a peace summit in Pretoria on Sunday achieves a breakthrough in slow-moving negotiations to end the West African country’s civil war. The current mandate expires on April 4, hours after the Pretoria summit is scheduled to take place.
More than a kilometre below the choppy Gulf of Mexico waters lies a vast, untapped source of energy. Locked in mysterious crystals, the sediment beneath the seabed holds enough natural gas to fuel the United States’s energy-guzzling society for decades, or to bring about sufficient climate change to melt the planet’s glaciers and cause catastrophic flooding, depending on whom you talk to.