A group of South African game developers is planning the development of an open-source adventure role-playing game that the developers hope will reinvigorate South Africa’s game-development industry. The game is likely to have an African folklore and mythology theme.
China’s will next month increase down-payments on home loans and broaden the capital gains tax, moves analysts said on Tuesday should help cool the overheated real estate sector in the short term. The down-payment on homes above 90 square metres would be raised to 30% from 20%, as authorities target the high-end of the property market.
Congress has stalled Pentagon plans to put conventional warheads on inter-continental missiles for use in Washington’s ”war on terror”, out of concern that they could trigger a nuclear war. The defence department is seeking -million for the conversion of submarine-based missiles as part of its Global Strike project.
It is going to come as a shock to tens of millions of lungs, but the Chinese government is planning a tobacco-free Olympics when the world’s heaviest smoking nation hosts the event in 2008. ”Let a smokeless games provide healthy competition, a healthy environment and a healthy lifestyle,” the Health Ministry said in a news release.
By day, residents of The Villages enjoy all the respectable pursuits of a healthy old age — a hand of cards, a tea dance and perhaps a round of golf before happy hour. But doctors are reporting a sharp rise in sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and human papillomavirus among pensioners at the retirement community and say the growing popularity of Viagra is to blame.
Former southern Sudanese rebels wound up landmark talks with the ruling party in Khartoum on Monday, vowing to work as partners but failing to reach agreement on a disputed oil-rich province. First Vice-President Salva Kiir, who heads the SPLM, and former arch-foe President Omar al-Beshir told journalists that they would work together to bring stability to the violence-wracked nation.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told Western newspaper editors on Monday to stop generalising about Africa and concentrate more on the continent’s success stories. Issues of real concern, such as Western poaching of Africa’s best and brightest talent, were being overlooked as the world’s media focused on wars and poverty, she told the annual world congress of the International Press Institute.
The African National Congress Youth League must retract its calls for the party’s next president to be Jacob Zuma, ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said on Monday. Motlanthe said the youth league ought to be guided by the policies of the party, which gave it the same status as each of the nine provinces in terms of nominations.
South African cellular operator Vodacom on Tuesday reported a group-wide customer increase of 51,9% to 23,5-million for the year ended March. Revenue was up 24,6% to R34-billion, while profit from operations rose by 36,9% to R8,9-billion. Vodacom reported net profit after taxation up 32% to R5,1-billion.
The number of South African companies doing business in Africa has more than doubled since 1994, Minster of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told MPs on Monday. She noted that the figures were drawn from <i>Who Owns Whom</i> and the South African Institute of International Affairs.