United States President George Bush and French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday clashed sharply for the second day running at Nato’s Istanbul summit, squabbling publicly over Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey’s place in Europe. The French president undermined hopes of burying transatlantic disagreements when he insisted he was ”entirely hostile” to any Nato presence in Iraq.
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R76,4-million for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in May from a surprise R3,121-billion deficit in April following a R2,085-billion surplus in March, according to the latest customs and excise figures released on Wednesday.
Talks between world number-five gold miner Harmony and the group’s unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers, regarding the closure of shafts has reached a deadlock, the NUM said in a statement on Wednesday. The parties have failed to make any significant progress since the agreement of a framework in May.
Twenty-seven people, including children, were injured on Wednesday in two explosions that rocked a city in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The bombs hit shortly after 1pm local time in the eastern city of Jalalabad.”There were two explosions, both at security posts,” provincial military corps official Agha Jan said.
Heated debate erupted in Zimbabwe’s Parliament on Tuesday when the ruling party said opposition lawmakers should be probed for treason for allegedly working with Britain, the former colonial power. A ruling party lawmaker accused the Movement for Democratic Change of working ”in concert with foreign and dangerous powers — [including] Britain”.
The chairperson of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) secretariat, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, and African-American celebrity Bill Cosby recently made statements that have serious implications for black people everywhere. Quite clearly, both statements are profound and contain an element of truth. However, no matter how well-intentioned, they repeat worrying accusations that have been directed at black people throughout history.
Massachusetts consumers could receive as much as -million worth of computer products, while North Dakota consumers could get as much as -million in separate, proposed settlements of class-action lawsuits accusing Microsoft of violating each state’s antitrust laws.
Employment has not grown over the last 20 years in South Africa, and in fact there were net job losses, research from the SA Reserve Bank showed on Tuesday. In an article in the Reserve Bank’s new publication Labour Market Frontiers Thami Hlekiso said non-agricultural formal employment dropped from 5,1-million in 1980 to 4,7-million in 2001.
Canadian aluminium giant Alcan, which had been expected to announce its decision on the aluminium smelter project at Coega this month, said it would complete its review by the end of the year. Meanwhile it is continuing to examine the best value-creating alternatives the scheme offered.
Municipality workers, supported by tenants of flats owned by the North West Housing Corporation (NWHC), will strike on Wednesday to oppose the privatisation of services, the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Tuesday. It was recently reported that the NWHC was to close because it was operating on a deficit of almost R1-million a month.