Shares in world number one resources group BHP Billiton and rival Anglo American on Tuesday soared to long-term highs on the back of a strong outlook for commodities, driven mainly by demand from China.
Iraq’s United States-appointed governing council finally agreed an interim Constitution on Monday, hailing it as a historic step on the road to full sovereignty and towards a country that is ”independent, democratic, federal and pluralist”.
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is backing a total withdrawal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Palestinian Gaza Strip, according to a well-placed Israeli source. Sharon announced the unilateral pull-out last December, but debate has raged among Israeli ministers about how far Israel should go.
"Fabulous! Luxurious! Sumptuous! Another wonderful private game lodge! But wait a moment, before my critics have a fit and <i>Top Billing</i> offers me a job … I am going to answer a question before I launch into reviewing AmaKhosi Lodge in northern KwaZulu-Natal," writes Sharon van Wyk. One lucky reader can also win a trip for two.
Analysis of election advertising campaigns often provides an objective litmus test of what political parties actually stand for, as opposed to what they communicate in order to secure your vote. In the build-up to the election it is interesting to look at the metamorphosis and development of how parties advertise themselves.
Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled a rebel onslaught on Sunday, is searching for a new home — and it appears that he may take up exile in South Africa. Aristide arrived in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), on Monday along with a small entourage that included his wife.
Britain’s sugar industry is conducting a last-ditch lobbying campaign to prevent Brussels from removing its lucrative virtual monopoly in the high-priced European market in favour of more competitive farmers from the developing world.
World leaders must address the ”ethical vacuum” at the heart of globalisation or face the danger that the widening gap between rich and poor will lead to further conflict, political upheaval and war, says the International Labour Organisation. Its year-long commission on globalisation has concluded that the persistent imbalances in the workings of the global economy are unsustainable.
Thousands of endangered species should be saved from extinction thanks to an ambitious plan to expand the world’s protected areas and improve their management approved last week by more than 120 countries. Twelve days of often fractious negotiations in Kuala Lumpur resulted in a concrete programme to ensure the ”significant reduction of biodiversity loss by 2010”.