Mozambique’s state-run railway company said on Friday it was investing -million to upgrade its fleet in a move to cut -million in wagon hiring fees charged by rail freight firm Spoornet. CFM, which operates the African nation’s railways and ports, plans to refurbish 820 refurbished wagons with the investment.
Billed as the biggest change in the way viewers watch television in 40 years, the BBC launched an online service on Friday that allows people to download many programmes from the last week. BBC director general Mark Thompson says the arrival of the ”on-demand” iPlayer is as important as the first colour broadcasts in the 1960s.
The European Union’s top antitrust regulator has charged that Intel tried to use its huge market share to push smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) out of the central processing unit business. The two companies make all the chips at the processing heart of the world’s personal computers and servers, but Intel has about 80% of the business.
Nine people were killed, including several civilians, in clashes between United States soldiers and militia fighters in Iraq’s holy Shi’ite city of Karbala on Friday. The clashes broke out at about dawn when US soldiers entered Kerbala, 110km south-west of Baghdad, and tried to arrest several militiamen from the Mehdi Army.
Plans to incorporate municipalities’ metro police units into the South African Police Service (SAPS) could not have come at a worse time, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. Zille, who is also mayor of Cape Town, said she was informed by ministerial letter on June 25 of the planned ”integration of municipality police into the SAPS”.
Google South Africa has a new face at the top: Stafford Masie, previously Novell SA country manager, is now heading up the local operations of the internet search giant, ITWeb reported on Friday. Last year, Google had advertised three posts in South Africa on its jobs site.
Italy joined Ferrari on Friday in condemning the decision not to punish McLaren for the spying controversy that has gripped Formula One. The International Automobile Federation said on Thursday that although McLaren had Ferrari data in their possession, there was insufficient evidence that they gained from it.
The United States space agency, Nasa, faced tough questions on Friday over a report that astronauts had shown up for duty drunk and also that workers found a sabotaged computer destined for an imminent mission. The troubled Nasa planned to hold a news conference later on Friday to address the alarming report.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee on Friday called on Sudan to prosecute war crimes committed in Darfur and to ensure that no support is given to militias that engage in ”ethnic cleansing”. The body of 18 independent experts voiced concern that Sudan had not carried out a thorough and independent probe into serious human rights violations.
Riazat Butt reports on the Kashmiri activist who inspired Islamic Rage Boy