Famed test pilot and aviation pioneer Scott Crossfield, the first man to travel at twice the speed of sound, died when his plane crashed in the American state of Georgia, the Civil Air Patrol said on Thursday. He was 84. Crossfield was flying from the southern state of Alabama to Virginia when his Cessna disappeared from radar.
Environment has forever been a lip-service ministry, given usually to some also-ran politician, the present incarnate Marthinus van Schalkwyk being a refugee from a defunct political party. But there are now signs that it is going mainstream. The Treasury has tabled a discussion paper that seeks to move the environment from the periphery to the centre of economic policy-making.
The letter "W" has finally been added to the definitive dictionary of the Swedish language, in the latest edition compiled by the Swedish Academy, it said on its website on Friday. Words spelled with the letter "W" are rare in Swedish, with the exception of words borrowed from other languages.
A crack in a dyke on a swollen river in south-eastern Hungary has forced 4 500 people to evacuate their homes, Tibor Dobson, spokesperson for the national disaster prevention agency, said on Friday. The evacuations were taking place in the towns of Csepa, Szeleveny and Tiszasas in Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok county, along the river Koros.
Lonrho Africa announced on Friday that Nare Diamonds had discovered a very rare 235-carat diamond from its Schmidtsdrift diamond mine in South Africa. The large-sized gemstone is octahedron in shape and of very good quality said a third-party assessor, according to Lonrho. "This is a substantial find as diamonds of this size are a very rare occurrence," Nare’s CEO Charles Mostert said.
Soweto’s Diepkloof hostel is to be demolished, the Gauteng provincial government confirmed in a statement on Thursday. This follows the announcement by Gauteng minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane last week that the hostel would be torn down and that 1 086 family units would be built in its place.
Let’s be grown-up about this — South Africans should not condone or romanticise the violence of striking security guards or the mayhem unleashed during other recent labour disputes. It is not a case of heroic class struggle or justified worker counter-violence against repressive capitalist bosses and their state lackeys.
Hereunder are a set of what could well turn out to be yet more hoax e-mails. They seem to relate to current political turbulence in the Mother City and came into the possession of <i>Loose Cannon</i> investigators as a result of diligent backbiting among interested municipal bureaucrats at all levels.
Waiting for grants: International community representatives on the board of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria have voiced concerns that, unless the process of calling for grants begins soon, grants may not be disbursed this year.
The Competition Commission will hold a public inquiry into bank charges and access to the payment system, it said on Thursday. It was releasing a research report into the national payment system (NPS) and competition in the banking sector. The NPS is the accounting and transaction system between banks and other financial institutions.
Fewer South Africans are gambling, according to a new study on the socio-economic impact of the practice in South Africa conducted by the Bureau of Market Research at the University of South Africa. The gambling industry now contributed just under 1% of South Africa’s gross domestic product, while only 1,7% of household budgets was spent on gambling.
At least 51 people were killed on Thursday when an overcrowded bus taking them to a wedding skidded off the road and slid into a pond in north-east India, police said. "We have extricated 51 bodies so far. There could be some more people in the pond and divers are at work," a police official told Agence France-Presse.
The Competition Commission will hold a public inquiry into bank charges and access to the payment system, it was announced on Thursday. It said this was a consequence of the findings of a research report to the commission on the national payment system and competition in the banking sector and continued public concern on the matter.
Malaysian wildlife officials denied capturing a baby "Bigfoot" on Thursday, amid fevered speculation over the existence of the mythical creature in the nation’s southern jungles. The <i>Berita Harian</i> newspaper reported that a young Bigfoot was caught by a group of men thought to be from the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) near the southern town of Kota Tinggi two weeks ago.
The National Prosecuting Authority has launched an investigation into the alleged misappropriation of millions of rands from JCI Limited and Randgold & Exploration. This follows the publication of the results of forensic investigations into a series of incidents of corporate fraud in both companies that led to combined shareholder losses of more than R1-billion.
Lawyers need no longer address Supreme Court judges with phrases like "My Lord" and "Your Lordship," the Bar Council of India has decided, calling the terms "relics of the colonial past". Supreme Court and high court judges can now be called "Your Honour", while in lower courts presiding officers may be called "sir" or its equivalent in local languages, the Indian media reported on Thursday.
McCarthy, the automotive division of the Bidvest Group, will introduce a range of fully imported Chinese vehicles on to the South African market before the end of the first quarter of 2007. These vehicles will be imported from reputable manufacturers who are using well-proven technology.
South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay on Thursday reported a 17,1% rise in headline earnings per share to 153,02 cents for the year ended February from 130,7 cents a year ago. Diluted headline earnings per share rose to 144,92 cents from 124,84 cents before. Turnover increased by 10% to R35,1-billion.
Crisis-hit Zimbabwe on Wednesday unveiled a fresh blueprint for the recovery of the Southern African country’s comatose economy. The blueprint was formulated through the Zimbabwe National Security Council, an all-encompassing taskforce with members from both the government and the private sector.
Kissing in public has just gotten 10 times more expensive for couples in India’s capital, who face fines of 500 rupees ($11) if they are caught making "illegal use" of public spaces. New Delhi’s authorities found a fine of 50 rupees ($1,1) levied under a 1936 law was too little to deter couples from stealing kisses, the <i>Asian Age</i> reported.
Movie fans bored with hi-tech sound effects and graphics will soon be able to experience cinematic smells after a Japanese film distributor announced it is showing the world’s first fragrant films. The system will offer six kinds of aroma depending on the scenes being shown.
The French navy made a red-faced admission on Wednesday that it had lost a multimillion-dollar sonar navigation device after its cable ripped in stormy waters. Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said an investigation has been launched into how the $3,7-million device was mislaid.
South African broadcast distribution and telecommunications company Sentech has signed a commercial cooperation agreement with GlobeCast Africa enabling programme satellite-linking to and from anywhere in the world, the company said on Wednesday.
First National Bank (FNB) on Wednesday announced a joint commercial-property and housing-finance deal that will see the provision of over 3 000 houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, over the next two years. The suburb of Protea Glen to be developed will be called Glen Ridge. The first batch of houses is expected to be available for occupation in September or October this year.
Media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi was set to take a bow as Italy’s prime minister on Wednesday, but has promised to be a thorn in the side of centre-left nemesis Romano Prodi in opposition. The supreme court was expected to copper-fasten Prodi’s provisional victory in last week’s polls.
Greater liberalisation of international trade would open up market opportunities for South African agriculture, and the important reforms the country has undertaken over the last 20 years have prepared it to reap the benefits, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report released on Wednesday.
Pulp and paper group Sappi has announced that as part of its ongoing support of the South African government’s broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) objectives, 25% of its South African plantation land portfolio would be sold to an empowerment consortium.
Online advertising revenue in South Africa is expected to reach R183-million in 2006, and to pass the R200-million mark in 2007, according to a new survey from World Wide Worx. It took the online publishing industry nine years, from 1994 to 2003, to grow to the R60-million revenue mark, yet it is set to treble that amount in the subsequent three years.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has attacked the government for its poor handling of HIV/Aids and President Thabo Mbeki for ongoing mixed messages on the pandemic, following a meeting of its national executive committee in Johannesburg last month.
A drunk man drowned on Monday after jumping off the dockside into the river Ouse in northern England to rescue his girlfriend’s shoes, the coastguard said. The 21-year-old, whose identity has not been released, dived into the water at Goole, East Yorkshire, at about 1am after he and his girlfriend had spent a night out drinking heavily.
One of Britain’s leading fee-paying schools is to offer classes on happiness to combat the malaise in society caused by materialism and celebrity obsession, its head teacher announced on Monday. "We are introducing classes on happiness," said Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College, in Crowthorne, Berkshire, west of London.
Benefit Recovery Services (BRS) has been awarded the biggest surplus apportionment and unclaimed benefits project to date, in terms of size, to locate and communicate with over 500 000 former members of the retail motor industry in order to distribute pension monies.