The Liquor Bill currently before the South African National Assembly trade and industry committee threatens the job security of 20% of all employees at SABMiller (SAB), the company said in a submission on Tuesday.
Silvio Berlusconi this week set a dubious precedent in Italian legal history by becoming the first serving prime minister to appear at his own trial. The latest twist in Berlusconi’s corruption trial has sent the Italian political class into spasms of fear.
An Iraqi-born British billionaire, reputedly Britain’s seventh-richest man, is one of 37 company administrators and business partners accused of involvement in France’s biggest post-war financial scandal in which the oil firm, now TotalFinaElf, allegedly paid out huge bribes and backhanders to expand its empire.
Shell capped a record first quarter for the oil majors by announcing a doubling of earnings this week, as war in Iraq, turmoil in Nigeria and strikes in Venezuela provoked a surge in prices.
A new paper accuses the World Bank of wildly underestimating the level of global poverty, saying its widely-cited figures that provide a global view of whether incomes of the poor are rising or falling are useless.
After getting over the constant embarrassment that is referring to the person you sleep with as your ”boyfriend” (too teenage?), your ”partner” (too gay?) or your ”other half” (too liable to make people throw up?), the next stage in many relationships is the corniest of all: getting engaged.
In a recent report the Human Rights Commission confirmed that it has a most significant role in ensuring government accountability even if it is not the primary institution for the enforcement of such rights. The report constitutes a serious indictment on the government’s fulfilment of its constitutional obligations in this area.
And the Oscar goes to… President George Bush, for unerring leadership, despite losing the plot; Tony Blair, for his thoughtful performance; and Saddam Hussein, for pulling off the seemingly impossible task of captivating a global audience
without appearing in a single scene. The Iraq debacle has lots in common with a Hollywood ”B” movie, writes Bryan Rostron.
Telecommunications, media and entertainment group Johnnic Holdings Limited on Monday announced details to unbundle 31,9% of its shareholding in telecommunications unit, MTN Group Limited.
While South Africans may be divided along race lines on the United States’s military intervention in Iraq (”Black and white take on the war”, April 25), Zimbabweans of all hues are mostly agreed that the US’s crusade to topple tyrants, wherever they are, is a good thing.