At first dismissed as a prank, and later cited as proof that God has a sense of humour, the duck-billed platypus has finally given up its evolutionary secrets. The creature has become the latest to have its genetic code sequenced, revealing it to be a bizarre mix of mammal, bird and reptile, with very complex sexuality.
The catastrophe in Burma has provided a good reason for the United States and others to insist on access to the secretive state.
Harmony Gold Mining, the world’s fifth-largest gold producer, on Thursday reported the turning of its fortune. The company swung into a profit in the first three months of 2008 after several quarters of reported losses. Harmony posted a March quarter net profit of R345-million versus the December quarter’s net profit of R46-million.
<b>Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 2 492 091 at noon on May 28</b>
Helping the victims of Burma’s catastrophe: While most of the local and international aid workers in Burma are scrambling to meet the immediate needs of 2,4-million people left stranded by Cyclone Nargis, several organisations are working to ensure that survivors living with HIV are included in the response.
The Department of Labour on Wednesday said the death of nine workers at Gold Fields, the world’s fourth-largest gold producer, would take centre stage when South Africa and its international partners within the International Labour Organisation celebrate World Health and Safety Day at the end of this week.
SABMiller announced on Wednesday that Transnet head Maria Ramos has joined their board as an independent non-executive director. "During her career, Ms Ramos has won a multitude of accolades, including being named as South Africa’s Businesswoman of the Year in 2001, and <i>Sunday Times</i> Business Leader of the Year 2005," said SABMiller.
Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates on Wednesday played down the chances of a fresh takeover bid for Yahoo!, saying the United States software giant would focus on an independent strategy. "We put a lot of effort into talking to Yahoo! and the conclusion was reached that we should pursue our own independent path," he told reporters during a visit to Tokyo.
An Australian politician who admitted to sniffing the chair of a female colleague has survived a challenge to his state leadership of his party, an official said on Monday. Troy Buswell was endorsed as the head of the West Australian Liberal Party after a motion to depose him at a party meeting failed, spokesperson Ray Halligan said.
Gold miner AngloGold Ashanti is to proceed with an approximate one-for-four renounceable rights offer, which would result in it issuing approximately 69,4-million ordinary shares at a minimum share price of R172, it said on Tuesday. This would raise gross proceeds of approximately R11,9-billion — or about $1,6-billion.
Yahoo! is willing to negotiate further with Microsoft, top executive Jerry Yang said in an interview on Tuesday, as he defended his handling of the aborted takeover bid. "We were totally willing to do a transaction, and they walked away," Yahoo! CEO Yang told the <i>Financial Times</i>, adding that he is open to renewing negotiations with Microsoft.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday expressed alarm at reports of rising violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe and said he was consulting with African leaders on how to help resolve the country’s election crisis. "I am deeply concerned at reports of rising levels of violence and intimidation" in Zimbabwe, he told reporters.
South African telecoms operator MTN Group said on Monday that it was in share price-sensitive talks with India’s Bharti Airtel. The group did not give much away amid speculation that Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest phone company, might launch a takeover offer for the local firm.
Municipal workers in Pretoria began an indefinite strike on Monday to press for better pay and working conditions, their leader said. Hundreds of members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union marked the start of the stoppage with a march through the streets of the capital before handing in a petition demanding pay increases.
The Standard Bank median house price fell to R530 000 in April from R550 000 in March, representing a decline of 8,6% year-on-year and 3,6% month-on-month. The five month moving average growth rate declined to 2,8% y/y in April.
A shipment of weapons from China destined for Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe is an obvious cause for the West to denounce Beijing’s involvement in Africa. But Western business and political leaders have already been watching China’s re-engagement with the continent with trepidation.
Behind all the words, the turning over of facts, the analysis, the frantic speculation (did the wife know?) and the tormented search for meanings (how could this happen?), lies a central image: a woman and her three children buried alive, toothless, hunchbacked, pale-skinned, talking in their own mumbling language, just beneath the surface of everyday life for 24 years.
United States employers cut 20 000 jobs in April in a relatively stable showing for the US labour market as the jobless rate fell a tenth of a percentage point to 5%, the Labour Department said Friday. Despite the negative figure on payrolls, the report was better than expected by private economists, who on average had called a loss of 75 000 jobs.
The United Nations’s new top adviser on food blamed two decades of wrong-headed policies by world powers for the food crisis sweeping the globe in a stinging interview published on his first day in office. Frenchman Olivier de Schutter told <i>Le Monde</i> newspaper the world needed to prepare for the end of "cheap food".
Kenya’s inflation rate rose to 26,6% in April, up almost 5% from the previous month, the government announced on Friday, blaming rising food and oil prices. "Month-to-month overall inflation rate increased from 21,8% in March 2008 to 26,7% in April 2008," said a statement from the government’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> <i>Iron Man</i>, <i>Made o Honour</i>, <i>Semi-Pro</i> and <i>The Walker</i>
A former German army officer involved in two failed plots to assassinate Hitler, but who remained undetected until the end of World War II, has died aged 90, his family said on May 2. Philipp von Boeselager was one of eight officers who planned to shoot Hitler and SS head Heinrich Himmler in March 1943.
The United States on Thursday urged Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to "call off his dogs" who are allegedly attacking opposition supporters and to release the presidential election results. State Department deputy spokesperson Tom Casey questioned how credible the results of the March 29 election could be when they have yet to be released.
A photograph recently appeared in Johannesburg’s daily newspapers of overweight police officers working out in a communal gym. The cops were laughing, but it was a pitiful sight. The men and women in the picture, sweating and puffy, are the ones we depend on to save lives. They are the ones we trust to protect and to serve our communities, property and homes.
If you want to know how powerful Rupert Murdoch is, read the reviews of Bruce Dover’s book, <i>Rupert’s Adventures in China: How Murdoch Lost a Fortune and Found a Wife </i>(Mainstream Publishing). Well, go on, read them.
Microsoft can build a competitive online advertising business without Yahoo! but it "could just take more time", CEO Steve Ballmer told the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> in an interview published on Friday. The comment came as analysts and industry watchers awaited an imminent announcement on Microsoft’s next move in its unresolved quest to acquire Yahoo!
It is now over a month since Zimbabwe’s elections on March 29, and finally the country’s electoral commission has convened a meeting to ensure that all candidates are happy with the figures.
A hunt for diamonds along the coast of Namibia has led to the discovery of a shipwreck dating back about five centuries, with its booty of gold coins and bronze cannons still intact. A spokesperson for Namdeb, the company whose miners made the discovery last month, said the ship was believed to have been the oldest wreck to be discovered in sub-Saharan Africa.
Zimbabwe has decided to float its local currency on foreign-exchange markets in an attempt to eliminate speculation on the black market, the governor of the central bank said Wednesday. The official exchange rate in Zimbabwe has been kept at Z$30Â 000 for US$1 since September 2007.
Georgia on Wednesday slammed Russia’s plans to boost peacekeeping troops in two rebel Georgian regions as the start of "full-scale military aggression". "It’s hard to believe that this is being done for the purposes of peacekeeping; it’s rather the beginning of full-scale military aggression," Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze said.
Harsh living conditions in Kenya are making it difficult for HIV-positive people displaced in the recent election violence to stay healthy.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco selling season was called off for the second time in as many weeks on Wednesday after farmers withdrew their crop from the auctions citing low prices. The auction floors in Harare, ranked among the continent’s largest, were supposed to open at 7.30am, but after around 80 bales went under the hammer, farmers started ripping off the price tags in protest.
Readers respond to our call to expose government bling. One writes that at a housing lekgotla held last year October at the Vista campus of the University of the Free State, participants were categorised as delegates, VIPs and VVIPs (very very important persons). While the VIPs had to share the parking lot with the plebeians, the double-vee-i-pees were allocated their own reserved parking area near the entrance of the conference centre.