Nigerian kidnappers have demanded 10-million naira ( 600) for a three-year-old boy they snatched on his way to school in the lawless Niger Delta, relatives of the toddler said on Friday. The boy’s abduction on Thursday came just four days after a British girl of the same age was released by her kidnappers in the same area.
Fears that hundreds of thousands of high-quality British jobs have been outsourced to low-cost emerging economies such as India are largely unfounded, but developing nations are being plundered for skilled staff to keep Britain growing, according to reports out recently.
On display among the bold African patterns and chunky jewellery, a carved giraffe flashes a price tag of 20Â 000 Tanzanian shillings (about R100). Handicraft trader Rose Mfinga says she will have to bargain hard to get half that price. ”People refuse to pay. I [inflate] my prices. That is what we are used to doing,” she says.
Emboldened by a resurgence of international communism and the ANC’s leftward shift, the South African Communist Party has proposed far-reaching constitutional amendments that it hopes will swing its position in the tripartite alliance from poor cousin to ruling coalition partner.
Protestant churches reacted with dismay to a new declaration approved by Pope Benedict XVI insisting they are mere ”ecclesial communities” and their ministers effectively phonies with no right to give communion. Coming just days after the reinstatement of the Latin mass, the document left no doubt about Benedict’s eagerness to back traditional Roman Catholic practices and attitudes.
Driving alone on Gauteng’s highways might soon be unaffordable. Tolls, big brother cameras for traffic offenders and electronic devices attached to cars are to become the rage if the provincial government has its way. This is one of government’s strategies to force Gauteng residents to make use of public transport.
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande definitely does not lead the life of a ”horny-handed son of toil”. The Mail & Guardian understands that his salary is equivalent to that of deputy ministers, who earn between R700 000 and R800 000 a year. Nzimande lives in a large home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Emmarentia and has been known to have up to four luxury vehicles in his garage.
The world’s carbon dioxide emissions did not plummet to zero after Live Earth and rock stars did not rise as one to trade their private jets for bicycles. Yet the scandalous possibility presented itself that Al Gore’s seven-continent, 24-hour concert series had been rather impressive and might yet prove important.
South Africa’s mobile operators are stretched to capacity trying to meet the rapidly increasing demand for voice and data services and are laying their own fibre-optic networks. Until now, MTN and Vodacom have relied on Telkom to provide their fibre network needs but, with Telkom unable to meet the increasing demand quickly enough, the mobile giants are taking matters into their own hands.
While peace in Côte d’Ivoire might be delayed because of the attempt on Prime Minister Guillaume Soro’s life, it will not be denied, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. July 2007 should register itself as an important month in Côte d’Ivoire’s history, as the flame of peace is lit in Bouake, Mbeki said in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress website.