South African exports will get a boost from a weaker rand after the Reserve Bank unexpectedly cut its prime lending rate last week but economists say the move holds no long-term guarantee to save jobs. The rand has been powering ahead for the past three months, breaking the six-rand-to-the-dollar threshold in July as the mining and textile sectors complained that the strong currency was hurting their business.
Some of the Boeremag treason-trial accused feel so aggrieved about media reports on their trial that on Monday they threatened to apply for an order to have journalists barred from court. The men complained about an Afrikaans radio talk show on radiosondergrense on Friday in which they claim they were ridiculed.
Women in uniform greet patrons from behind a reception desk while others rush back and forth with drinks. Men in waistcoats talk frantically into their lapel microphones, ensuring their guests have everything they need. Is it a smart restaurant? No. Espace Tower, a stone’s throw from Shinjuku’s notorious red-light district, satisfies a much more urgent need among Tokyoites than a mere meal.
A British archaeologist is set to reveal what he believes to be the location of John the Baptist’s cave to the west of Jerusalem, the Times reported on Monday. Shimon Gibson (45) has found a cave with a ritual baptism pool, rock carvings and pottery, which he linked to John the Baptist and his followers, the newspaper said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is headed for a public-sector strike after conciliation talks with the government failed. "It is clear that despite all efforts from the side of labour to find common ground, negotiations have reached a dead end," a prepared Cosatu statement said on Monday.
Insurgents on Sunday launched a concerted effort to disrupt an historic national conference in Baghdad when they lobbed mortars at the venue where the assembly was being held, killing two people. Soon after delegates from around the country had begun debating, an explosion ripped into a taxi and bus stand a few hundred metres away. At least 17 people were injured.
The United States filmmaker Spike Lee has been accused of ”exploiting” lesbian lifestyles and pandering to ”male sexual fantasies” in his new film, in which a straight man impregnates several lesbians a night at 000 a time. Prominent lesbians have dismissed Lee’s film, She Hate Me, saying its portrayal of lesbian life is both ”extremely harmful and lacking in complexity”.
Killer asteroids will essentially cease to be a threat within the next 30 years, according to a leading expert. Scientists are discovering near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) so fast that the chances of one hitting our planet with no warning is likely to become minute, said Dr Benny Peiser.
Hot dog buns filled with ice cream instead of sausages are keeping youth cool this summer in Japan’s western Osaka city, local media reported on Monday. ”Ice dogs” have been made popular by an Rokko Ranch Arai ice-cream shop in downtown Osaka’s America Village.
Mention caves and usually images of darkness, musty rocks and bats come to mind. But health specialists in the Czech Republic are putting caves in a more positive light by promoting a special treatment for allergies, bronchitis and other breathing problems called ”speleotherapy”.