No image available
/ 21 November 2005
The cast and crew of the Czech reality show <i>VyVoleni (The Selected)</i> were cleared from the Prague villa used for filming before dawn on Sunday by about 40 security guards and dogs sent in by the site landowner over a rent disagreement, broadcaster TV Prima announced.
No image available
/ 21 November 2005
Shareholders in South African construction group Murray & Roberts on Monday voted in favour of the company proceeding with the implementation of its broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction. Group chief executive Brian Bruce said: "We are pleased that shareholders have supported our empowerment strategy."
No image available
/ 19 November 2005
The world’s biggest passenger jet, the Airbus A380 superjumbo, made its maiden flight to the Middle East early on Saturday in Dubai, a day before the opening of a major aviation show in the emirate. A white A380, bearing a belly logo of the national carrier Emirates and the flag of the United Arab Emirates on its tail, was seen flying over coastal landmarks.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
Contemporary music, from pop songs to film and show tunes, is now almost as likely to be chosen for a funeral in Britain as traditional religious pieces are, according to a study released on Thursday. One of the country’s largest funeral providers found more than 40% of ceremonies involved modern music.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
Moving beyond the monopoly of sight and touch in the computer world, a Japanese company is offering a service to download aromatic scents at a click of a button. A customer who wants to be surrounded by a new fragrance has a choice of six scented oils ready to mix in a blender, which is hooked up to the computer like a mouse.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
SA must shun patronage The article “Beware of a shallow culture” (November 4) by Joel Netshitenzhe initiates a vital debate. Where exactly are black South African culture, and South Africa, heading? Netshitenzhe is concerned about a loss of direction in South Africa. He stresses the need to continually hold an ethical vision of a future […]
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
Mzi Khumalo faces penalties that could reach R130-million for stashing offshore the benefits of a botched empowerment deal, which saw him acquire, and quickly sell, a large stake in Harmony Gold three years ago. In an apparent violation of exchange control regulations Khumalo managed to use the proceeds of the deal to gain access to more than R700-million in foreign currency, effectively taking his profits offshore.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
At least six people were killed, including a woman and two children, and 40 hurt when two suicide bombers blew up their cars on Friday outside a Baghdad hotel and near an interior ministry complex. The explosions, at about 8.20am local time, brought down the facade of a three-storey residential building.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
Robbie Williams, Britain’s biggest entertainer, has just released a new album and is set to perform in South Africa next year. But he’s still a mixed-up boy, he tells Paul Flynn.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
There are some excellent civil servants from whose expertise and efficieny I have personally benefited. But there are still others who think that delivering a service refers to what they do on Saturday afternoons, writes Mike van Graan.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
South Africans seem to specialise in doing difficult jobs well, often with unique and apparently dangerous technologies. The country’s expertise in gold and diamond mining is well known, but its success with fuel technologies, polymer research, boat building, wine growing and even Aids treatment, among many others, is now gaining respect and recognition.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
A showdown is looming between Telkom and municipalities across the country as they begin to roll out their own telecommunication networks. One municipality, Knysna, is already using its own wireless network even though it has received a warning from Telkom. It plans to offer wireless services through a private company to consumers from early next year.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
Those who endorse Intelligent Design — that hotchpotch of Medieval theological hysteria, Neolithic superstition and prehistoric terror — have a fairly ambivalent relationship with dinosaurs. In this respect they have a lot in common with most fauna that lived nervously and died spectacularly 80-million years ago.
No image available
/ 18 November 2005
Extra! Extra! Read all about who scooped the prestigious Mondi Shanduka awards for top journalism in 2004.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
A daily buffet of giraffe, zebra and crocodile will be offered to visitors at a zoo in northern Thailand, an environment minister said on Thursday, announcing plans that have left conservationists outraged. The zoo will officially open New Year’s Day and will feature five restaurants, including the Vareekunchorn where diners can have a taste of the exotic.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
East Timor expects within two months to announce a deal with Australia on developing a disputed oil and gas field, its prime minister said on Thursday as the world’s youngest country courted foreign interest in its petroleum resources. East Timor, which was Asia’s poorest nation upon independence in May 2002, has been in long-running talks with its neighbour Australia over a deal on sharing billions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas reserves under the Timor Sea.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Listed retailer Mr Price has reported a 52% rise in diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to end-September 2005 to 46,5 cents from 30,6 cents a year earlier. The company declared an interim distribution of 24,3 cents per share, up from 13,2 cents at the halfway point in 2004, reducing its distribution cover to two times earnings from 2,4 times in the year-earlier period.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
A British woman is thought to have become the oldest person in the country to get baptised, after a 101-year wait to be blessed at the baptismal font. Ivy Smith, from Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, southern England, had always thought she was too old to undergo the blessing.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Johannesburg- and London- listed specialist banking group Investec plc on Thursday reported a 43,1% leap in headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of September from 58,3 pence to 83,4 pence. The group declared an interim dividend per share of 38 pence.
No image available
/ 17 November 2005
Edvard Munch’s <i>The Scream</i> is the most iconic of the images on a newly published FBI list of top 10 art crimes, a catalogue of missing masterpieces worth $600-million that includes works by Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Degas, Cezanne and Van Gogh, as well as thousands of artefacts looted from the Iraqi museum in Baghdad.
No image available
/ 16 November 2005
The unholy scam that advertisers call "Christmas" is approaching and Ian Fraser enlightens us on a pathetic gift idea as well as other weird happenings on the world wide web. Apparently good bomb-making info that you should try at home: allegedly, if you drop sweets containing gum arabic into cold drink, they go "boom" — no kidding.
No image available
/ 16 November 2005
The JSE hit new highs recently, breaking the important psychological level of 17Â 000. Most of this year’s gains have been on the back of the consumer party and the China effect, which has driven companies’ earnings in the retail and commodity sectors. According to Graeme Korner of Standard Equity Advisory Services, much of the market’s strength has been driven by foreign buyers.
No image available
/ 15 November 2005
Some have been reviewed in more depth – click on the title to read the full article.
No image available
/ 15 November 2005
French telecom equipment maker Alcatel said on Tuesday that it had signed a preliminary agreement with Australian telecoms giant Telstra for a maintenance and supply contract worth €2,18-billion. Telstra is planning an overhaul of its communications network to enable it to transmit all of its voice and broadband internet data via a single web-based system.
No image available
/ 14 November 2005
Old Mutual plc, South Africa’s largest insurer, has extended the final closing date for its R38-billion offer for Swedish insurer Skandia to December 16 this year, from the previous date of November 21, the company said on Monday. Old Mutual also said it will be issuing a supplementary prospectus shortly.
No image available
/ 14 November 2005
Johannesburg- and New York-listed telecommunications group Telkom on Monday reported a 35% increase in interim headline earnings per share to 775,9 cents for the half-year ended September 2005, from 574,9 cents for the previous comparable period. Operating profit increased by 37,3% to R7,517-billion.
No image available
/ 14 November 2005
The short-term insurance sector is making headway in meeting Financial Sector Charter obligations to allocate at least 50% of procurement spending to black suppliers by 2008 and 70% by 2014. Bruce Campbell, CEO of Mutual & Federal, says this will have a dramatic and positive effect on grass-roots empowerment.
No image available
/ 13 November 2005
The stereotypical editor is a grumpy old man who talks in grunts and whose desk is full of dirty coffee cups. It’s an enduring image, fuelled by journalists who seem to take pride in having worked under awful bosses. Get a group of them together, and the chances are they will begin trying to trump each other with war stories. My editor was worse than yours — that sort of thing.
No image available
/ 13 November 2005
Cars usually hit wild animals on rural roads, but a motorist in California had a deer slam into him just as he was checking his car for signs of an animal collision, the highway patrol said. Robert Brooks was driving about 45km from San Francisco at dusk on Tuesday when he swerved to miss a deer.
No image available
/ 13 November 2005
The newly elected leader of Israel’s Labour party, Amir Peretz, is so attached to his trademark walrus moustache that he refuses to shave it off … unless the facial hair issue is put to a referendum. "This trademark doesn’t just belong to me any more. It is no longer my personal property. It is public property," he said.
No image available
/ 13 November 2005
In a rather flaky piece on Noam Chomsky, headlined "Chomsky: As flaky as the next man", reprinted from the London <i>Guardian</i> in these pages last week, someone called Emma Brockes clearly sets out to take issue with the great Guru of the Left’s anointment as the w orld’s greatest public intellectual by an interesting British journal called <i>Prospect</i>.
No image available
/ 13 November 2005
There has been vigorous debate since democratisation about the best economic way forward. An idea expressed by people in business and the government is that labour-intensive production in South Africa cannot compete with developing economies in the East.