The National Council Against Smoking has called for legislation to make cigarettes ”fire-safe”, in a bid to reduce the number of blazes sparked by stompies every year.
Scores of workers, among them labour leaders, were arrested on Wednesday in Zimbabwe’s capital when they gathered to protest at high taxation, inflation and alleged rights abuses. The protesters were rounded up by heavily armed riot police and made to sit down on the pavement in downtown Harare before they were taken away in police cars.
Ten south-east Asian nations have signed a landmark accord to turn their vastly disparate states into an integrated, tariff-free trading and economic community by 2020 that would resemble the early embodiment of the European Union. A pact with Beijing will also create by far the world’s largest free trade zone.
In yet another twist to the bidding war for New Africa Investments Limited (Nail), the Tiso Consortium — comprising Tiso, Safika, Capricorn, Investec and Mineworkers Investment Company — has announced that it has acquired more Nail and Nail N shares.
Stronger European markets and a positive close on the Dow overnight helped the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) bounce into the black on Wednesday, after being oversold on Tuesday. Volumes remained light, however, with a fair portion of the buying in the market coming from futures players.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso has downplayed the crisis unleashed by the resignation of Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz, stressing that he stepped down for personal reasons. The government is going through ”difficult moments”, but it will ”face” them, the premier said.
Ethiopia has returned to Kenya 37 elephant tusks seized from smugglers who were trying to export them illegally to the Far East, Kenyan wildlife authorities said on Wednesday. The tusks, weighing 145kg, were intercepted while in transit through Ethiopia in April, the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) said in a statement.
The long-awaited government taxi recapitalisation programme will once again take another two years to come to fruition after the South African Transport and Trade and Industry Departments agreed with a taxi body to postpone the cut-off dates for the programme rollout.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has hailed a Burundi peace deal sealed in Pretoria in the early hours of Wednesday, saying the agreement was crucial in solving the "jigsaw puzzle in the heart of Africa". "This is not just paper. It ensures that not another African dies unnecessarily," said Mbeki.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=21597">Burundi’s balancing act</a>
Political reporter Ranjeni Munusamy was taking legal advice on Wednesday about whether to appear before the Hefer Commission of Inquiry, which will on Monday start probing allegations whether the National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was a spy for the apartheid government.
Arms deal focus