Leisure group Sun International on Tuesday reported a sharp increase in headline earnings per share to 252 cents for the half-year ending December 2004, from 153 cents in the previous comparative half-year. The group attributed the improvement to strong growth in casino revenues, improved operating margins and lower borrowing costs.
Truck drivers and their employers have ”in principle” reached an agreement about wages, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) said on Tuesday. Negotiators from the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union and the Road Freight Employers’ Association are expected to sign the deal at noon on Tuesday, said CCMA director Edwin Molahlehi.
Canadian doctors on Monday embarked on an intricate operation to separate conjoined twin boys from Zimbabwe. Tinashe and Tinotenda were joined at the abdomen and share a liver, and have been treated at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children since late last year.
Tens of thousands of young girls and women have been raped or otherwise subjected to sexual violence during five years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to an international investigation. Some of the victims were as young as three. Men and boys were similarly treated, the report by Human Rights Watch says.
Italians bade an emotional farewell on Monday to the senior intelligence officer killed by United States troops in Iraq last week as officials in Rome and Washington tried to dampen smouldering resentment over his death. Nicola Calipari was given a state funeral and his body was carried to Santa Maria degli Angeli church in Rome past a guard of honour.
Michael Jackson lay on a bed masturbating himself and a 13-year-old boy at the centre of child molestation charges against him, the boy’s younger brother told a court on Monday. The alleged victim’s younger brother told the jury that he had seen Jackson sexually molesting his brother on two occasions.
Prospects for an early withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon faded on Monday as the countries’ presidents agreed only a partial time-table which appeared to fall well short of international demands. A pullback to the eastern part of Lebanon will be completed by the end of this month but no date has been set for all the 14Â 000 Syrian troops to leave.
For years, they have been regarded as the world’s number one nation of fun-loving, pint-downing, party animals. But it seems they were pulling the wool over our eyes: Aussies spend more time asleep than anyone else on the planet. According to a survey of global sleeping habits, nearly a quarter of all Australians hit the sack before 10pm.
South African Transport Workers’ Union spokesperson Abner Ramakgolo announced on Tuesday that following an agreement reached with employers, truck drivers have ended their strike and will resume work on Wednesday. The strike action that started on February 26 saw more than 30 000 truck drivers striking as a result of a snag in wage negotiations.
Biowatch South Africa won a major victory recently on access to information about genetically modified crops in South Africa. Pretoria High Court Acting Judge Eric Dunn granted Biowatch access to all its key requests for information — but in a surprising twist, he also ordered the environmental NGO to pay the legal costs of giant biotech multinational Monsanto.