A post template

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

SA car-industry revenue seen topping R230bn

South Africa’ motor industry is expected to increase its trading revenue to R230-billion this year compared with R201,7-billion last year, an industry representative body said on Monday. In its annual report, the National Association of Automobile Manufactures of South Africa said the revenue was on the projected total sales of 714 500 vehicles — an improvement of 15,7% on 2005 sales figures.

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

Wikipedia founder remakes web-publishing economics

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday his for-profit company, Wikia, is ready to give away — for free — all the software, computing, storage and network access that website builders need to create community collaboration sites. Wikia, a commercial counterpart to the non-profit Wikipedia, will go even further to provide customers with 100% of any advertising revenue from the sites they build.

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

EU wrangles over future of Turkey talks

European Union foreign ministers wrangled on Monday over how hard to penalise Turkey for failing to normalise trade with Cyprus at the start of a week that could derail Ankara’s troubled entry negotiations. EU countries are split between some who would shed no tears if talks collapsed and others who say Europe must embrace a key strategic partner to bridge the Western and Islamic worlds.

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

Botswana’s Bushmen await land-rights verdict

A Botswana court will decide this week whether hundreds of San Bushmen can return to their ancestral land in a dispute activists say pits Africa’s last hunter-gatherers against the world’s hunger for diamonds. The Bushmen say Botswana illegally forced them off hunting grounds in the Kalahari Desert to make way for diamond mining.

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

Schwartzel sets sights on SAA Open

Charl Schwartzel heads to Humewood in Port Elizabeth for this week’s South African Airways (SAA) Open determined to claim the victory that eluded him last week and continue his quest for a place in next year’s United States Masters. The 22-year-old lost to Spain’s Alvaro Quiros on the final hole of last week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

Another deadly typhoon hits Philippines

Typhoon Utor departed the central Philippines overnight, leaving five people dead, 20 missing, nearly 90 000 evacuated and two key regional summits in disarray, officials said on Monday. The mass evacuations were ordered to avoid a repeat of the devastation of Typhoon Durian a week earlier.

No image available
/ 11 December 2006

The Kremlin is king in Russian business

Shell’s experience in the Russian Federation proves the Kremlin has slammed the door on foreign investors who want control of strategic projects — and other investors would do well to take heed, analysts and fund managers said on Monday. Shell has offered to cede control of its $22-billion Sakhalin-2 project to the state gas monopoly.