The Los Angeles Times is eliminating about 190 jobs at its newspaper and community publications as part of a cost-cutting plan ordered by its corporate parent, Chicago-based Tribune. The Times said on Tuesday that 42 editorial employees accepted voluntary buyouts offered by the paper while another 20 newsroom staffers were laid off.
The music industry filed copyright infringement lawsuits against 482 computer users on Tuesday, the latest round of litigation by recording companies against suspected online music file-swappers. As in previous complaints brought by the industry this year, the lawsuits were filed against unnamed ”John Doe” defendants, identified only by their computers’ internet protocol addresses.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is giving Malawi three months to improve its finances before it will resume talks on fresh aid, the southern African country’s finance minister said on Wednesday. ”The IMF wants to see if the new government can establish a new track record,” Goodall Gondwe told the daily Nation newspaper.
The African National Congress and opposition parties have accepted a special committee’s report on the public protector’s probe into deputy president Jacob Zuma’s complaint against National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka. Zuma lodged a complaint with the public protector on Ngcuka’s public statements that there was a prima facie case of corruption against him, but that he would not be prosecuted.
Australia has some inventive solutions to greenhouse emissions, from burying carbon dioxide to building a half-mile-high tower to generate solar energy. But government researchers on Tuesday announced the strangest proposal yet — plans to vaccinate livestock to prevent them letting off methane.
Oracle has clashed with rival Microsoft in dozens of recent business applications software deals, according to sales records that provide a glimpse at some of the evidence likely to be introduced on Wednesday in a pivotal legal showdown. Microsoft and its subsidiaries bumped into Oracle at 94 companies looking to buy accounting or personnel software during 2002 and 2003, the documents said.
The trial of 70 suspected mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe for allegedly plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea will begin on July 19, a magistrate said on Wednesday. The 70 men were arrested on March 7 when their plane was making a stopover in Harare to pick up weapons, allegedly en route to Equatorial Guinea to topple long-time President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka was misinformed if she believed nuclear power had a future as an energy source, Earthlife Africa said on Wednesday. ”Nuclear energy is not an option for South Africa,” said Sibusiso Mimi, a campaigner for the organisation in Cape Town.
SA ‘cannot avoid nuclear energy’
South Africa’s CPIX inflation (headline inflation excluding mortgage costs) was up 4,4% year-on-year (y/y) for metro and other areas in May compared with 4,4% y/y in both April and March, 4,8% y/y in February, 4,2% y/y in January and 4% y/y in December, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
Expected interest rate hikes by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) could be delayed until next year after May consumer inflation data came out lower than expectations, according to Investec. Investec Asset Management portfolio manager John Stopford said: "Yet again, most of the surprise was in food prices, which remain very well behaved."