South African banking group Absa is hoping to almost quadruple the size of its NewGold exchange traded fund from its current take-up value of just more than R240-million to R1-billion by the end of 2005, Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank’s Dr Vladimir Nedeljkovic has said in an interview.
Global resources group Anglo American saw 49 fatalities at its managed operations worldwide during its 2004 financial year, up from 44 deaths in the group’s previous financial year, Anglo chairperson Mark Moody-Stuart said in the group’s 2004 annual report.
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State torture and violence in Zimbabwe makes it impossible to have free and fair elections on March 31, says a report released on Thursday. The report by the anti-torture group Redress criticises President Robert Mugabe’s government for failing to arrest and try several police and army officers suspected of torture.
Even as a crane hoisted away the concrete slabs around the Israeli army’s checkpoint into Jericho on Wednesday, soldiers were still waving down drivers for inspection. By the end of the day, the paraphernalia of the roadblock was gone along with the Israeli flags. But the troops remained.
Scientists analysing the aftermath of the Boxing Day earthquake under the Indian Ocean warned on Thursday that another devastating quake is now far more likely to strike the region. The seismic slip off the coast of Sumatra that triggered the tsunami has piled dangerous levels of stress on to two vulnerable parts of the fault zone.
General Motors on Wednesday stunned United States equity and bond markets with a profits warning which triggered fears that the world’s biggest carmaker could see its debt rating cut to ”junk”. The Detroit-based group now expects to make a first-quarter loss after earlier predicting it would break even or make a profit, sending its shares and bonds into a spin.
United States President George Bush on Wednesday chose one of the most controversial figures in his administration, the Pentagon’s chief ideological proponent of the Iraq war Paul Wolfowitz, to head the World Bank. Bush tried to beat back some of the criticism on Wednesday, telephoning world leaders to lobby for his choice.
The fabled Milan opera house, La Scala, was on Wednesday night in turmoil after its musicians and other employees voted overwhelmingly for the resignation of its musical director, Riccardo Muti, and the entire governing board. In a day of operatic drama, rumours swept Milan that 64-year-old Muti had agreed to go. But they were denied by theatre officials.
Nearly 7Â 000 drivers, mainly foreign diplomats and French officials including top civil servants and senior policemen, escaped fines after being caught by France’s new automatic speed traps last year. The satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé, citing a leaked interior ministry document, said the diplomatic corps was clocked over the speed limit 2Â 590 times.
The African National Congress is presenting a unified front on the March 31 elections in Zimbabwe, but behind the scenes there is increasing debate in the ruling party about how to deal with the political and economic crisis north of the Limpopo. Many in the ANC are increasingly uncomfortable with the approach of the government and the party.