The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa was in positive territory in noon trade on Wednesday, propelled by a firmer close on Wall Street overnight and a slightly softer rand. However, volumes were very light as players took to the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates due in the evening.
Standard Bank has introduced another first in South Africa, a prepaid foreign-exchange travel card known as TravelWallet. It has the advantage of allowing travellers to spend on their entire trip at the exchange rate at which they bought their foreign currency.
Getting older in Africa isn’t what it used to be. While some of the continent’s senior citizens may, in years gone by, have enjoyed a relatively quiet retirement, this prospect has largely been wiped out by the responsibility of caring for grandchildren who have been orphaned by Aids.
Information technology (IT) outsourcing revenue will show a compound annual growth rate of 15% over the next five years to reach nearly R5,25-billion by 2006, according to a recent study. South Africa’s telecommunications infrastructure has been mentioned as a vital consideration.
There can be no solution to the Middle East conflict without the involvement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday. Mbeki was speaking at the United Nations African Meeting in Support of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
‘Peace and prosperity for both’
He served time for laundering the proceeds of an international heroin-trading ring. Now he’s on trial in Palermo, charged with belonging to the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. It is perhaps not surprising that 57-year-old Vito Palazzolo wants a change of image.
Granted South African citizenship in 1995, the alleged Mafia don changed his name to Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko.
When the fighting flared up again it looked like a resumption of the awful war in central Africa, but the rebels retreated, the peace accord survived and the Democratic Republic of Congo counted the cost of the crisis in dozens rather than millions dead.
Saddam Hussein, the dictator thought responsible for the killing of 250 000 people, and the last best justification for the United States-British invasion of Iraq, will be shown in public for the first time since his capture either on Wednesday or Thursday, as the long process of bringing him to account begins.
"I know I’m starting off yet another column by referring to Zimbabwe, but watching the meltdown occurring there is a bit like watching an armless, legless mutant woman giving birth to a flipper child on a rubbish heap — yes, it’s disgusting, but damn, you gotta look. You just can’t resist looking." Besides taking a look at Zimbabwe’s current political situation, Ian Fraser turns his eye to other interesting things online.
No job in journalism is more difficult or more satisfying than war reporting. In a war zone, reporters have to deal with people who regard killing as just another part of the day, they have to get the story right and then deliver it on deadline in places where just stepping outside can be fatal. But war reporting has a terrible downside. It can kill you.