Microsoft’s XBox video game system will team up with software maker Electronic Arts to stage an online interactive world cup tournament later this year, the companies announced on Thursday. The project is part of XBox’s sponsorship for soccer’s 2006 World Cup in Germany.
A three-day conference on ageing in Africa opened in the South African commercial hub of Johannesburg on Wednesday. "In parts of Africa, the burden placed on grandparents — especially grandmothers — is overwhelming," said Robert Huber of the United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared determined on Thursday to plough on with his Gaza pull-out plan after his party shot down his ambition to bring the opposition Labour party into a new coalition. ”The prime minister will pursue the application of his plan with the same timetable,” a senior official said.
Elmer Bernstein, the versatile, Academy Award-winning composer who scored such movie classics as The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Escape and True Grit, died on Wednesday. He was 82 and had been in failing health for some time.
About -million is needed to fight the swarms of locusts that are marauding through West Africa, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, said on Wednesday. ”Our first request [in early July] was for nine million dollars, but as the funds did not arrive, the scale of the problem now calls for -million,” he said during a visit to the Senegalese capital.
A record number of cows were killed on Tuesday when lightning hit a farm near Herning on Jutland, reports said Thursday. The 31 cows were likely the highest number to date killed by a single lightning bolt in Denmark, TV-Midt-Vest reported, citing a joint information office operated by Danish insurance companies.
Four men detained in a raid on a suspected mercenary recruitment centre in Cape Town on Wednesday are being questioned by the Scorpions about possible illegal military activity. National Directorate of Public Prosecutions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said on Thursday the Scorpions in the Western Cape had raided the offices of International Intelligence Risk Management in Parow. They took possession of two computers, files and stationery.
The value of civil judgements for debt declined by 20,5% year-on-year (y/y) in June to R541,8-million, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. This compares with a 6,6% y/y drop in May to R526,5-million and December’s phenomenally high 64,5% y/y increase to R840,8-million.
Thursday’s announcement of a major, R123,8-million black economic empowerment (BEE) deal by international private equity group Brait, which will see BEE investors taking a 26% slice of the company’s South African subsidiary, is not the group’s first involvement in the BEE arena.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was powering ahead in noon trade on Thursday, fuelled by expectations of renewed rand weakness and a higher gold price. Strength was seen across the board, with advancers outnumbering decliners on the all-share index by almost three to one. Only two shares on the Top 40 index failed to post gains.