Brazil, the United States, China and the European Commission launched a joint initiative in New York on Friday to promote development of an international market for biofuels which are seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Joined by India and South Africa, they announced at a press conference here the launch of a mechanism to create a world market to spur production
The new minimum wage of R1 090 a month for farm workers is welcome but inadequate, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday. ”The challenge now, as always, is to force the employers to comply, the trade union said.
A Norman Rockwell painting stolen more three decades ago was found in Steven Spielberg’s art collection, but the Oscar-winning filmmaker acquired it legally, the FBI said on Friday. Rockwell’s Russian Schoolroom, worth as much as 000 today, was stolen from a St Louis gallery in 1973.
Springboks Jean de Villiers and Breyton Paulse snatched intercept tries as the Stormers beat the Wellington Hurricanes 30-17 in a Super 14 rugby match on Saturday. De Villiers scored the first and Paulse the last of the Stormers’ four tries as the South African team, previously last on the championship table, took a bonus point from an away win.
Every major enterprise in South Africa would learn in the next few years that it had not invested enough for the growth the country, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin warned on Friday evening. ”The public-sector investment alone in the next five years is R420-billion. This has never ever been attempted in South Africa before,” he said.
A senior director in the Zimbabwe government has been arrested at Harare International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle diamonds, reports said on Saturday. William Nhara, who is also spokesperson for the ruling party for the Harare province, is still in police custody.
Doctors at Zimbabwe’s main state hospitals have called off a two-month strike for better salaries and working conditions after reaching a compromise with government, the health ministry said on Friday. As the strike escalated the health ministry had to call on army medics to step in and augment skeleton-staff numbers at some hospitals.
Moammar Gadaffi has complained that Western countries have failed to properly compensate Libya for scrapping its nuclear arms programme and as a result countries like Iran and North Korea would not follow his lead. Libya agreed in 2003 to abandon its nuclear arms programme and allow access to international weapons inspectors.
South Africa will use its presidency of the United Nations Security Council in March to push for the organisation to pay for African Union peacekeeping operations. The Security Council has agreed on a so-called hybrid force in Sudan which will comprise African Union peacekeepers supported technically and financially by the UN.
A woman accused of running a prostitution ring threatened to immerse Washington in a sex scandal on Friday by saying she was considering selling 13 years of phone records to raise funds for her legal defence. Lawyers claimed that the records would lead to a client list of 10 000, including some of Washington’s most influential figures.