The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) on Thursday ticked higher, after two days of consolidation, on buying interest, with volumes very thin, equity brokers said. By 12.05pm, the all-share index was 0,69% higher. Resources climbed 0,75% and the gold-mining index was 0,71% higher.
Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed memoranda of understanding to ”harmonise” transport and mining development between the two countries. Zimbabwe’s foreign minister Stan Mudenge said on Wednesday the agreements would lead to joint mineral exploration and mining activities in the DRC.
Thousands of cattle in Mozambique’s central Sofala province have been hit by an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis which can also affect humans if they eat contaminated meat, a provincial governor said on Thursday. ”The disease is a serious threat to the economy of the province and to human life as people have generally defied appeals not to eat any meat before being tested by the veterinary experts,” said provincial governor Felicio Zacarias.
The Eastern Cape soccer referee who allegedly shot dead a coach and injured two players during a match at Kenton-on-Sea in July has been arrested in Port Elizabeth, police said on Thursday. Grahamstown policing area spokesperson Inspector Mali Govender said detectives had followed up information that the man was hiding in the Walmer township in Port Elizabeth.
The Nigerian senate has ordered Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell to pay ,5-billion compensation for damages caused by nearly 60 years of exploration in the Niger
Delta. The senate adopted the Bill which ordered the payment to members of the Ijaws ethnic group ”for the severe health hazards, economic hardship, injurious affection, avoidable deaths and sundry maladies” resulting from oil spills at Shell facilities.
The Scorpions arrested Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, because he was planning to move to the United States next week, the elite detective unit said on Thursday. "I can confirm he was planning to leave the country," said spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121107">Thatcher faces court showdown</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121103">Thatcher released on R2m bail</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121039">’Thatcher met with coup plotter'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121052">Wayward son of the Iron Lady</a>
Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton said on Thursday it was forming a joint venture with Japanese steelmaker JFE steel that will underpin iron ore sales worth ,7-billion over the next 11 years. The joint venture partners will work together to develop and commercialise part of BHP Billiton’s Yandi mine in northwestern Australia.
An end to the illegal strikes at three of Botswana’s diamond mines was expected on Thursday, mining company Debswana said on Wednesday, but informal talks with the Botswana Mining Workers Union then snagged on the issue of the reinstatement of strikers who had been fired.
Iraqi police on Wednesday night abducted around 60 journalists in the city of Najaf, after bursting into the hotel where they have been covering the battle in the city for the Imam Ali shrine, and dragging them off at gunpoint. The police moved into the lobby of the Sea of Najaf hotel at 9.15pm on Wednesday night. As they fired shots into the air, they ordered all journalists to leave immediately.
In the colonnaded doorways of Rassul Street, several fighters of the Mehdi army had made their final stand. Their bodies lay in small groups — two here, two there, and five here. For three weeks militia loyal to the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have defied the extraordinary firepower of the United States military, hiding in the network of alleys surrounding Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine.
Police abduct journalists