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News
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Recent
Judgments Available on the Internet
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Equality Courts
Bisho
Son takes father to court for forcing him to be circumcised -
23 January
A young Christian man is taking his father to court to demand an
apology for violating his rights when he allegedly forcefully sent
him to an initiation school. In an unprecedented move, 19-year-old
Bonani Yamani wants the Bhisho equality court to force his father
Lindile Yamani, traditional leaders and government to apologise to
him. He is assisted by Justice Alliance of South Africa (JASA), a
Cape Town-based organisation that describes itself as
'a coalition committed to the highest
moral values in South African society' -
Daily Dispatch
website
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Cape
Provincial Division
-
http://law.sun.ac.za/cgi-bin/list.php
High
Court dismisses abalone application - 18 January
The Cape Town High Court has dismissed an application by a group
of abalone rights holders who wanted to stop the Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism from issuing permits to abalone
divers. The department on Thursday welcomed the court's decision,
after the divers tried to challenge the department's decision to
suspend commercial fishing of abalone. -
allAfrica website
Fidentia Case
Fidentia : Khan accused of being negligence - 22 January
The Cape High Court has granted a punitive costs order against the
city attorney representing Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown, saying
that he was negligent in not giving his client professional legal
advice. But the attorney, Rashaad Khan, was not deterred by the
court's order and has decided to approach the Supreme Court of
Appeal in Bloemfontein. Justice Dennis Davis dismissed the
application and granted a punitive costs order against Khan. -
IOL website
Fidentia
boss loses round with judge - 22 January
Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis yesterday dismissed with costs
an application by Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown for Davis to recuse
himself from a sequestration application he had heard in November
last year. Davis said there had not been an application for him to
recuse himself from the case when previous counsel appeared for
Brown during a hearing to have the estates of Brown and his wife
Suzette sequestrated. - allAfrica
website
Fidentia chief's application 'an abuse of judicial system' -
21 January
An application in the Cape High Court on Monday, concerning
sequestration proceedings involving Fidentia's J Arthur Brown and
his wife, Susan, was "an abuse of the judicial system", Cape High
Court Judge Dennis Davis said. -
Mail & Guardian website
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Eastern
Cape Division
-
http://wwwserver.law.wits.ac.za/echc/index.php
Man wins court bid for passport - 23 January
The department of home affairs in the Eastern Cape has been
ordered to grant a passport to a Port Elizabeth man within 30
days. Yesterday's High Court order in
favour of Abdi Hussen Ali comes after he approached his lawyer for
assistance because he had waited for a passport for more than a
year. In his affidavit, Ali said he was a businessman who had
become a South African citizen by naturalisation. Ali's
certificate of naturalisation was granted on June 14, 2006. -
The Herald Online
website
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Free
State
Provincial Division
-
www.uovs.ac.za/fac/law/highcourt/
State to
fight De Beers' diamond dump victory - 25 January
The legal battle between mining giant De Beers and the minerals
and energy department over the control of diamond mine dumps said
to contain deposits worth billions of rands may continue after the
department said yesterday it might appeal against last month's
ruling by the Bloemfontein High Court in favour of De Beers. De
Beers had taken the department to court to stop it granting a
prospecting right to empowerment company Ataqua Mining on De
Beers' Jagersfontein tailings dump in Free State, where mining
ceased in 1971. - allAfrica
website
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Natal
Provincial Division
-
http://www.saflii.org.za/
Lawyer wins R100 000 for defamation - 24 January
A Pietermaritzburg High Court judge has ordered the Safety and
Security minister to pay damages of R100 000 to a former attorney
for Pakistani businessman, Wassim Agha, over defamatory
allegations made by a police officer to the effect that she had a
"love affair" with her client. The allegation against attorney
Sheena Raghavjee (32) was aired publicly during Agha's
2004 bail hearing in the Durban Magistrate’s Court by
Superintendent Anton Booysen. "There is no reason why a young
female professional . . . should refuse
such an invitation. It is certainly not a licence to immediately
classify such interaction as a "love affair". Unfortunately,
however, it creates an opportunity that invites comment and
speculation. In the interests of strict professionalism, such
interaction between an attorney and client should be avoided," the
judge stated in his judgment. He said taking into account all
factors, R100 000 damages would be appropriate. -
Witness website
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Transvaal
Provincial Division
- (Court rolls at
http://www.courtroom.co.za/roll.php)
18 January 2008
(34431/2005) [2008] ZAGPHC 11
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v Cable (Pty) Ltd
Marked Not Reportable
Keyphrases :
Municipal Structures Act
17 of 1998
Regional Establishment Levy
Regional Services Levy
Small Business Tax Amnesty
and Amendment of Taxation Laws Amendment Act 9 of 2006
18 January 2008
(25173A/2005) [2008] ZAGPHC 10
Wraypex (Pty) Ltd v Barnes
Marked Not Reportable
18 January 2008
(4754/2007) [2008] ZAGPHC 9
Koyabe and Others v Minister of Home Affairs and Others
Marked Not Reportable
16 January 2008
(A615/2006) [2008] ZAGPHC 8
S v Ngobeni
Marked Not Reportable
16 January 2008
(A118/2006) [2008] ZAGPHC 7
S v Nkosi
Marked Not Reportable
16 January 2008
(8569/2007) [2008] ZAGPHC 6
Panday v University of the Witwatersrand
Permission to register with University
Marked Not Reportable
10 January 2008
(52996/07) [2080] ZAGPHC 5
MGC Bedryfsmaatskappy (Edms) Bpk v De Bruyn
Marked Not Reportable
10 January 2008
(27785/2003) [2008] ZAGPHC
Rodrigues v Pretorius In Re: Pretorius v Schoeman and Others
Marked Not Reportable
10 January 2008
(43844/07) [2008] ZAGPHC
Altech Netstar (Pty) Ltd v South East Tracking & Recovery
Services (Pty) Ltd and Others
8 January 2008
(17239A/2007) [2008] ZAGPHC 4
Equity Aviation Services (Pty) Limited v South African Post
Office Limited
Marked Not Reportable
8 January 2008
(49375/2007) [2008] ZAGPHC 1
MGK Bedryfsmaatskappy (Eiendoms) Beperk v Booysen en 'n Ander
Marked Unreportable
'Safety first, AA later' - 24 January
A Pretoria High Court Judge on Thursday criticised the Tshwane
Municipality for putting equity transformation above safety
considerations. Judge Bill Prinsloo interdicted the municipality
from imposing any disciplinary sanction on one of its senior
electrical engineers, Adrianus Weyers, for sending a letter of
concern about his bosses' employment equity policy - which he said
endangered city employees and the public - to the Engineering
Council and the department of labour in 2005. ".
. . I
fail to see how I can express approval for actions aimed at
achieving (and accelerating) equity transformation at all costs
and in disregard of safety considerations. This must be
particularly true in the case of a lethal commodity like high
voltage electricity. In my view there must be a sensible balance
between considerations of employment equity on the one side and
safety on the other side," the Judge said. -
Fin24 website
Ermelo
school set to appeal - 24 January
Hoerskool Ermelo would get four more teachers so that the 95
pupils the Mpumalanga education department has forced the school
to take on can be taught in the language of their choice, which is
English, the Mpumalanga education department says. Despite this,
the tussle between the Afrikaans-medium school and the department
is set to continue, with the school's governing body gearing up to
appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal against being forced to turn
parallel medium. - allAfrica
website
Afrikaans-only school loses court appeal - 21 January
Mpumalanga's Hoerskool Ermelo lost a final court bid on Friday to
stop the province from forcing it to admit English-speaking
pupils. The Pretoria High Court dismissed an application for leave
to appeal against the court's earlier ruling that the school had
to admit English-speaking children a day after principal Koos
Kruger was suspended by the province's education department. Three
judges have described the "insensitivity" of the Hoerskool
Ermelo and its governing body to students who did not want to be
taught in Afrikaans as "shocking". "The department is holding the
principal responsible for things they told him not to do", said
Anthony Benadie, the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Mpumalanga
education spokesman. - allAfrica
website
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Witwatersrand Local
Division -
http://www.saflii.org/
25 January
2008
4480/07
Sailing Queen investments v Occupants of La Colleen
Stuart Wilson, head of the CALS litigation Unit : - "In this
case, the CALS Litigation Unit acts for a group of desperately
poor people facing eviction by a property developer from a block
of flats in Bellevue. We brought an interlocutory application for
the joinder of the City of Johannesburg and a stay in proceedings
pending an inquiry into the extent to which the state has complied
with its constitutional obligations to provide alternative
housing. The interlocutory application was argued on 5 December
2008 and judgment was handed down this morning. The judge allowed
the joinder of the City of Johannesburg and granted the
respondents and temporary stay of proceedings in the main
application. In resisting joinder, the applicant relied on
Xantium Trading v Molefe, a similar case in which Boruchowitz
J refused an application for joinder of the City of Johannesburg
on the basis that the rules of court did not allow for a defendant
(or respondent) to join a third party and that there is no other
common law authority for joining the municipality
"as a matter of practice"
in eviction proceedings. The judgment in Sailing Queen
Investments considers and rejects the reasoning of the court
in Xantium Trading and considers the respondents'
application for joinder and stay in the broader context of the
state's constitutional obligations to
prevent homelessness and the proper balance of rights to be struck
between owner and unlawful occupier in circumstances where an
eviction would likely lead to homelessness. . . . The judgment
also considers the interaction between the Bill of Rights, the
Rules of Court and the common law of joinder
May be online next week on the
Legalbrief and the
Centre for Applied Legal
Studies websites
In the meantime you may request a copy from our librarians at
help@lawlibrary.co.za
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Regional Courts
Cape Town
Bail conditions relaxed for Fidentia man - 21 January
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown on Monday made his first appearance
in the Cape Town Regional Court, where he is to go on trial on two
charges of fraud, one of theft and one of contravening the
Companies Act.
Brown had previously made several appearances in the lower
district court, together with Fidentia's former financial
director, Graham Maddock, but at the last appearance on December 7
their trials were separated. Maddock was expected to appear in the
Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on February 1. -
Mail & Guardian website
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Government
and Legislation
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South
Africa Government Information
-
http://www.gov.za
;
http://www.polity.org.za
Statements and
Speeches
22 January
2008
Statement on Cabinet meeting of 22 January 2008
Keyphrases :
Auditor-General's reports
Convention concerning the Promotional Framework
for Occupational Safety and Health
(Convention 187)
Employment Relationship recommendation (no.198)
Eskom
International Labour Conference Instruments
Maritime Labour Conference, 2006
Promotion Framework for Occupational Safety and Health
Recommendation (Recommendation 197)
22 January 2008
Land deal provides new opportunities for education
18 January
2008
Climate change round-table discussion
17 January
2008
Almost R200 million to rebuild libraries and buy books
16 January 2008
New Library Council to finish
Transformation Charter
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Legislation
Child Justice Bill
Law aims to rehabilitate children in trouble - 22 January
Legal and social workers in the Southern Cape have welcomed the
re-introduction of the Child Justice Bill into Parliament. The
portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development
plans to hold public hearings on February 5 regarding the Bill and
written submissions need to be made by the end of the month for
consideration in the discussions. -
The Herald Online
website
Constitution
of the Republic of South Africa Amendment Bill
and
Cross-Boundary Municipalities Laws Repeal and Related Matters Bill
How
'national interest' trumped popular will in Khutsong - 21
January
Records of Gauteng legislature local government portfolio
committee meetings held before the passing of the Constitution
Twelfth Amendment Bill in 2005 show that the committee changed its
position on Khutsong being transferred to North West - just a week
after deciding to keep it in Gauteng. The legislature's turnabout
came to light following the submission to the court of documents
containing minutes and transcripts of committee meetings held on
November 29 and December 5. -
allAfrica website
Consumer Protection Bill
Progress report (supplied by Deneys Reitz via Cathy :
OSALL)
Many clients have enquired about the progress of the Consumer
Protection Bill. We have obtained the following information
from DTI
:
▪
The third draft of the Bill (which has not yet been published)
was approved by the Cabinet on 5 December 2007
▪
The Bill was then referred to the State Law
Advisors for review and certification. This practice could take
six weeks or longer
▪
It is anticipated that the Bill will be published and introduced
to Parliament in March/April 2008.
There is no information at this stage as to when the legislation
will come into force.
Expropriation Act, 1975
Expropriation under spotlight - 23 January
The public works department has started on the business of
revising the laws on expropriation, which became a matter of
urgency following the Polokwane national conference of the ANC
last month. A announcement from the department on Wednesday said
that it will start the ball rolling with a national workshop to be
held in Gauteng next month. The new law will replace or amend the
Expropriation Act (of 1975). -
Fin24 website
Revenue Laws Amendment
Act 35 of 2007
Fears of double toll on smokers, drinkers - 25 January
Lawyers have warned that recent legislation makes it possible to
levy excise duties on imported goods.
But the South African Revenue Service (SARS) said the
change would not affect how much was collected from importers.
Hester Hopkins and Quintus van der Merwe of Customs @
Wylie, a division of Shepstone & Wylie, said the Revenue Laws
Amendment Act promulgated this month changed the definition of the
term "customs duties".
- Business Day website
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Useful
Links and Items of Interest
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ANC 52nd National
Conference 2007 - Resolutions
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/conf/conference52/resolutions.html
;
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/conf/conference52/resolutions.pdf
ANC lays
down law to Mbeki's government - 21 January
The African National Congress (ANC) flexed its muscles at the
weekend, setting an agenda it said the government must deliberate on
at its cabinet lekgotla, which starts tomorrow. The party's national
executive committee (NEC) said yesterday it would keep an eye on the
extent to which the ANC's immediate social and political programme,
which the party fine-tuned at a three-day meeting at the weekend,
would filter into government programmes this year. -
allAfrica website
ANC resolution on the Transformation of the Judiciary - 23
January
politicsweb website
ANC targets judiciary, media - 23 January
The new ANC leadership is rushing headlong into a confrontation
with the judiciary, national prosecuting authority, and the
press. The resolutions adopted by the party's national
conference, now ratified by its National Executive Committee
(NEC), demand the dissolution of the Directorate of Special
Operations (DSO) and the limitation of judicial independence.
They also provide for a greater measure of state control over
the media. - politicsweb
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Ships at sea : positions
and weather observations
http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/
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Legal Profession
Fiji
Law society
wants more indigenous members - 25 January
Efforts are being made to bring indigenous lawyers into the
mainstream Fiji Law Society organisation to ensure that they are not
influenced by nationalistic interests. Law Society president Isireli
Fa said if left unchecked, indigenous lawyers could go off on their
own tangent and start to harbour views not generally supported by
mainstream society members. He said there were now 120 indigenous
Fijian lawyers. Most of them were part of the 60 members of the law
society. -
The Fiji Times Online
website
Pakistan
UK lawyers call for release of Pakistani judges - 25 January
The UK legal profession and leading human rights groups are calling
on the Pakistani authorities to release and reinstate lawyers and
judges imprisoned in Pakistan in the recent constitutional upheaval.
The call by The Law Society of England and Wales, the Association of
Muslim Lawyers and the Bar Council and groups including Justice and
Liberty coincides with the visit of President Musharaff this
weekend. - Times Online
website
Law Soc heads for Pakistan crisis meeting - 23 January
The Law Society is set to meet Pakistan's
High Commissioner to call for the release of lawyers and judges
imprisoned in the country. Representatives from the Bar Council and
the Association of Muslim Lawyers will also be present at the
meeting next week. The three organisations are leading calls for the
Pakistani government to reinstate members of the legal community
jailed in the recent constitutional crisis. -
The Lawyer website
Scotland
Accountants and lawyers to join forces north of the border? -
22 January
The
Office of Fair Trading (OFT) first called for lawyers and
accountants to be allowed to work in partnership six years ago,
but despite assurances the Law Society would be given sole
responsibility for all parties, its practice rules continue to
forbid its members from working in multi-disciplinary parterships
(MDPs). However, a new ruling form the OFT has prompted the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) to launch a
Scotland-specific campaign backing the proposed "one-stop shop"
this week. Pending a super-complaint last year from consumer group
which? about restrictions and access in the Scottish legal
profession, the OFT has again weighed in on the side of the MDP.
Following Sir David Clemanti’s review of the legal services in
England and Wales in 2004, many insiders believe the English MDP
is inevitable, although it is expected to take at least another
four to five years before it arrives. -
AccountingWeb
website
United Kingdom
One year on : lawyers remain unconvinced of SRA potency - 24
January
After 12 months of operation, senior transactional lawyers still
feel detached from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
despite risk and compliance heads' assertion that the body has
been giving City firms more attention. New week (29 January) will
mark the one-year anniversary of the Law Society's separation of
its representative and regulatory arms, a move that created the
SRA. Since then, City firm general counsel and compliance heads
say the organisation has been more in touch with the profession. -
legalweek website
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South Africa
Arms and Ammunition
Africa's leading explosives firm fighting
back on several fronts, but Chinese imports still hurting - 25
January
Africa's largest explosives producer, AEL,
will go to court late next month in a bid to seek an order
compelling the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac)
to complete its abandoned probe into a claim by the group that
Chinese-made shock-tube explosives systems are being dumped into
South Africa. The company laid its initial complaint in 2004, but
failed to show "material damage",
which it sought to then detail in a 2005 submission. But Itac
subsequently set aside the second application in 2006, on what AEL
views as a "technicality".
- Creamer Media's
Engineering News website
Criminal Justice
System
Pilot project reports reduction in court backlogs - 22 January
A KwaZulu-Natal pilot project that has proven to drastically reduce
court backlogs and overcrowding in prisons may be rolled out
countrywide if the government comes to the table with funding, the
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on
Tuesday. The department's regional head, Bridgette Tshabalala, was
speaking in Phoenix, north of Durban, during a presentation on
findings of the joint 18 month-long Justice and Restoration Project
(JARP), which was initiated in September 2006. -
Mail & Guardian website
Pilot project reports reduction in court backlogs - 22 January
A KwaZulu-Natal pilot project that has proven to drastically reduce
court backlogs and overcrowding in prisons may be rolled out
countrywide if the government comes to the table with funding, the
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on
Tuesday. The department's regional head, Bridgette Tshabalala, was
speaking in Phoenix, north of Durban, during a presentation on
findings of the joint 18 month-long Justice and Restoration Project
(JARP), which was initiated in September 2006. -
Mail & Guardian website
Restorative
justice gives closure to victims - 22 January
At least 79 percent of the cases referred to the Phoenix Justice and
Restoration Project by courts, have been successfully resolved
without the need to be processed through the criminal justice
system. This form of justice has been hailed by human rights
organisations as a method which gives closure and restores dignity
to victims, communities and the accused. -
allAfrica website
Education
23 January 2008
Report on George Cato – MEC intervenes
SA Government Information
website
Environment
Climate change mitigation study in 'final
stretch' - Van Schalkwyk – 18 January
South Africa's long-term mitigation scenario (LTMS) study,
regarding climate change, which would inform future policy
decisions, is now in its "final stretch", Environment and Tourism
Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told delegates at a climate
change round table discussion in Cape Town, on Friday. Once the
LTMS study is finalised, which was said to be imminent, it will be
submitted to Cabinet, where it, together with work on sectoral
strategies, the greenhouse-gas inventory, national communications
to the United Nations, and South Africa's adaptation planning,
will be used as a reference to inform the deliberations towards a
legislative package, which would give effect to South Africa's
policy at a mandatory level. –
Creamer Media's
Engineering News website
Health
9 January 2008
Private hospital tariffs must not impair the right of access to
healthcare
SA Government Information
website
Land Affairs and
Property
Take advantage of
tax incentives - 25 January
Investors who purchase commercial or residential property from a
developer within a proclaimed Urban Development Zone (UDZ), and
subsequently let it out at market rates, may write off a portion of
the purchase price against income. Provided certain conditions are
met, the so-called 'UDZ allowance' therefore offers potential
investors an important incentive to purchase properties in these
areas. This is the view of Nate Taylor of Lew Geffen Sotheby's
International Realty who says that the tax incentive was introduced
by government as a means of stimulating re-generation in areas
suffering from urban decay. - Cape
Business News website
Land Claims and
Expropriation
Good intentions reap a bitter harvest on the lowveld - 25
January
On now-deserted farms transferred to land-claims beneficiaries
between five and two years ago, which Business Day
photojournalist Martin Rhodes and I visited in Trichardtsdal, we
found scene after scene of destruction.
These were not farms where production had simply been
halted as a consequence of land claims and neglect had taken its
toll ; these farms had been destroyed
beyond redemption. Kobus Pienaar of the Legal Resources Centre,
which has been involved in recent national reviews of land reform in
SA, says the government must shoulder some of the blame.
"The (failure to) undertake prehandover
planning and implementation steps (before physical settlement) by
the government is undoubtedly the main and foremost reason for major
problems within community land claim cases where agricultural land
has been restored," Pienaar said. -
Business Day website
ANC to crack land expropriation whip - 22 January
About one in three farms must be redistributed over the next five
years, and foreigners should face property restrictions with
immediate effect. These are among the resolutions agreed at the
ANC's recent conference (see link above).
Also in the spotlight is "redundant" land belonging to state owned
enterprises and municipalities. Instead of being sold off to
developers for commercial, industrial and prime residential
developments, ANC members have agreed that it must be transferred
for low-cost housing. The use of land for "elite purposes" like golf
estates will also be limited. -
realestateweb website
State to take possession of expropriated farm - 21 January
The state will on Thursday take possession of a Limpopo farm that
was expropriated after it was liquidated. The liquidators refused to
bring down the price at which they were willing to sell the farm to
the government. A notice of expropriation was in December served on
Sechaba Trust, the liquidators of the citrus-producing farm named
Callais. This followed the state's offer of R13,361-million, which
was rejected by the liquidators who demanded an amount of
R19-million. The farm will be handed over to Strategic Farm
Management (SFM) as part of an interim caretakership arrangement,
and later transferred to the Letebele, Mpuru and Maraba community. -
Mail & Guardian website
Minerals and Energy
Eskom forces
SA mines to stop mining - 25 January
South Africa's gold mines, and mining companies in other sectors,
were instructed last night by electricity utility Eskom to shut
their mines, possibly for up to two to six weeks. A letter signed by
Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga said that key industrial consumers (KPI) had
to reduce their power loads to "minimum levels". He added that Eskom
could not guarantee power supply. In the letter, Maroga said the
mines were required to "evacuate all underground staff"
; "suspend all surface and underground mining"
; but were allowed to keep essential services operating such
as pumping and lighting. Mining companies would also be allowed
underground if proto-teams were required to tackle fires. -
miningmx website
Energy Risk
Management Plan to be re-activated - 24 January
Western Cape MEC for Environment, Planning and Economic
Development, Tasneem Essop, will be convening an urgent meeting
with Eskom, the City, the private sector, organised labour and
civil society on Thursday (24th January) to re-activate the Energy
Risk Management Committee (ERMC) which was set up two years ago by
the Premier, under her chairpersonship, to deal with outages being
experienced in the province at that time. -
Cape Business News website
No
thanks, says Eskom - 25 January
Instead of load shedding, Eskom could be buying power from private
sector competitor, Independent Power Southern Africa. But the
state-owned utility has refused to buy IPSA's
power.
Since September, IPSA has been generating up to 18MW of
electricity, enough to supply the suburbs Eskom switches off for
two hours at a time. The chief executive of IPSA, Peter Earl, said
: "I haven't
managed to get a satisfactory explanation from Eskom about this.
Apparently, they say paying penalty clauses for load shedding is
cheaper than buying from us".
IPSA's plant in Newcastle,
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa's second
privately-owned power station, converts waste heat from two large
chemical plants into electricity. -
Sowetan website
Ipsa inks power deal with SA govt, unveils plans for additional
capacity - 25 January
Independent power producer Ipsa has signed an agreement with
government's Central Energy Fund (CEF), for a key role as private
sector power plant developer to the integrated energy project
being developed at the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ), in
the Eastern Cape. Under the agreement, the company would install a
521-MW open-cycle gas turbine plant outside Port Elizabeth, and
would look at constructing a further four plants with the same
capacity and technology at a later stage. -
Creamer Media's
Engineering News website
Nuclear renaissance, electricity woes, SA defence looks global
- 25 January
Our cover story gives a good deal of attention to the various
nuclear developments that are likely to make headway during 2008,
including the pebble-bed modular reactor demonstration programme,
as well as the culmination of talks between power utility Eskom
and the two shortlisted nuclear vendors, Areva and Westinghouse. -
Creamer Media's
Engineering News website
'You can sue Eskom' - 22 January
A legal expert has said that South Africans can successfully claim
damages from Eskom for losses as a result of the wave of power
failures. Johan Theron of lawyers Jan S de Villiers, said on
Tuesday that in a report of the National Energy Regulator of South
Africa (Nersa), it had been found the power failures from November
2005 to March 2006 in the Western Cape had been caused by "blatant
negligence" in respect of procedures, maintenance and remedial
actions, or a lack thereof. He said Eskom supplied electricity
through a licence in terms of the
Electricity Act 41 of 1987.
- News24 website
Eskom bid to ration power use - 22 January
Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga said the rationing would be calculated
using an average consumption less a specific percentage reduction.
While Eskom has not 'crossed all the Ts' in terms of how people
would be able to measure their electricity usage according to the
quota, Maroga warned that anyone breaching the quota could have
their power disconnected. - Dispatch Online website
SA's biggest power users agree to cut
consumption by 10% to 15% - 21 January
Government-owned power utility Eskom has asked its biggest
customers to reduce their electricity usage by between 10% and
15%, to prevent load shedding, CEO Jacob Maroga said on Monday.
– Creamer Media's
Engineering News website
Eskom to invite more cogeneration projects, hopes to fast track
some - 21 January
Africa's biggest power producer,
State-owned Eskom, will run another round of bidding for
electricity cogeneration, after having received proposals for 5
000 MW in the first bidding process, a senior official said on
Monday. This amounted to about one-eighth of the utility's
current installed capacity, and these projects that got the go
ahead would start contributing power to the grid around 2012. -
Creamer Media's
Engineering News website
18 January
2008
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Public
Protector to join forces in demanding answers from Eskom on the
ongoing electricity crisis
SA Government Information
website
Govt battling to comply with own
legislation at derelict mines - 18 January
These days 'hazard'
signs could well be erected alongside rivers and dams that were
once the play places of children and the survival mechanism for
many fauna and flora species. Unlike the days when river water was
crystal clear and river sand snow white, green sludge and
discoloration are currently the order of the day. The problem is
that the State enforcement of water legislation is limited, owing
to a lack of capacity in regulatory institutions to manage and
control what is taking place at the mines, he says. –
Creamer Media's Mining Weekly
website
Plans to quench Gauteng's fuel thirst - 22 January
Transnet has announced plans to build a major petroleum storage
farm in south Durban and a new 525 kilometres fuel pipeline from
Durban to Johannesburg to meet Gauteng's thirst for petrol, diesel
and jet fuel. The pipeline would be double the size of the
existing one, and handle 24-billion litres a year. Depending on
where the tank farm is built - either on top of the existing SA
Air Force (15 Squadron) Base at Durban International Airport or at
the Island View terminal in Durban Harbour - an extensive network
of buried pipelines will have to be dug. If the plan is approved,
digging and construction work will begin before the end of the
year. - IOL website
Municipal Management and Procedure
Cape Town
A new
era on the cards for Atlantis - 23 January
Up to 1 440 jobs are expected to be created for the desperately
unemployed of Atlantis within the next two to four years, as the
City of Cape Town gives the green light for the development of
40 hectares of industrial land. On Tuesday, 11 businesses bought
16 erven of land valued at nearly R27-million, with the strict
proviso that they may not sell the land until it is developed.
Failure to do so within the next two years will see the land
returned to the city. They will do business in the areas of boat
building, electrical engineering, textile manufacture,
construction, mining and the automotive industry. -
allAfrica website
eThekweni
Municipal rate hike proposal gets thumbs-down - 24 January
National government plans that would have ultimately led to the
public cross-subsidising government rates to the tune of
R3-billion have come up against a tide of opposition. Municipal
executives who met on Wednesday have given national Minister of
Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi's
Rates Act proposals
a collective thumbs-down. A general residential rate hike of
30.15%, and 3,47 percent increase for industry and commerce was
predicted in the confidential council letter, which was sent to
the South African Local Government Association by the eThekwini
Municipality earlier this month. The letter strongly opposed the
proposed new regulations in the Property Rates Act and detailed
how ratepayers would essentially subsidise national government
buildings. - IOL website
Heated debate about funeral costs - 23 January
Should Durban ratepayers be funding funerals and other ceremonies
for Zulu traditional leaders? That was the question at the centre
of a heated debate at the eThekwini Municipality executive
committee meeting on Tuesday following revelations that Mayor Obed
Mlaba and Municipal Manager Michael Sutcliffe approved R50 000 of
council money to buy two cows and cover other expenses for the
December burial of Inkosi Victor Mkhize. -
IOL website
Nelson Mandela Bay
Residents lose their battle to halt plan for Lorraine growth
- 25 January
Lorraine residents have lost their battle to stop the
municipality from implementing a groundbreaking and
controversial development plan for the burgeoning Port Elizabeth
suburb. The full council yesterday approved the Lorraine local
spatial development framework plan and lifted the moratorium
placed on new developments. The moratorium was imposed in 2005
because of concerns that the infrastructure could not cope with
the flood of residential development. -
The Herald Online
website
Task team on by-laws at the halfway stage - 24 January
A task team established by the municipality to rewrite some of
its archaic by-laws, and in certain cases coming up with totally
new ones, is nearly halfway in its task, as it has completed
drafting 12 of the 22 by-laws to be promulgated. Three by-laws
have already been promulgated – the roads, traffic and safety
by-law, the fire and safety by-law and the disaster management
by-law. The other nine, which are at various stages of
preparation, are either first or second drafts. -
The Herald Online
website
Nelspruit
Nelspruit mayor to be charged? - 21 January
An independent commission of inquiry has recommended that
criminal charges be laid against the mayor of Mpumalanga's
capital city, Justice Nsibande, and the city's 2010 manager,
Differ Mogale. The two men are accused of failing to declare
their conflicts of interest in deals related to the 2010 FIFA
World Cup stadium outside Nelspruit. Nsibande and Mogale are
members of a tourism company, Blue Nightingale, which includes
Terry Mdluli as a board director. Mdluli is chairperson of the
Matsafeni Trust, which represents a community of farmworkers who
sold their ancestral land, worth R60m, to the Mbombela local
municipality for just R1 so that the 2010 stadium could be built
on it. - News24 website
National Prosecuting Authority
18 January
2008
South African Human Rights Commission concerned about the
ongoing spat between the National Prosecuting and the Police
SA Government Information
website
Presidential Pardons
Ferdie Barnard applies for presidential pardon - 22 January
Former Civil Cooperation Bureau (CCB) operative and convicted
apartheid assassin Ferdie Barnard is applying for a presidential
pardon, the Daily Dispatch reported this week. The amnesty
window for people applying for a presidential pardon for alleged
political offences began last week and ends on April 15. -
Mail & Guardian website
Scorpions
Scorpions
told merger with Saps 'inevitable' - 24 January
The Scorpions are already being prepared for their controversial
incorporation into the police - even before Parliament amends the
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)
Act, and despite threats by opposition parties to challenge
the move in the courts. -
allAfrica website
Cabinet to study ANC's Scorpions decision - 22 January
The government will look at ways in which members of the Scorpions
performing police functions can be absorbed into the police,
spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Tuesday. The African National
Congress (ANC) decided last weekend that members of the
Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) performing police
functions should be absorbed into the South African Police Service
(SAPS) by June this year. - Mail &
Guardian website
Outrage grows over bid to kill Scorpions - 22 January
There was a growing surge of opposition yesterday to the decision
by the ANC national executive committee to incorporate the
Scorpions into the SA Police Service by June, with political
parties and analysts saying the move had serious political
undertones.- The Herald
Online website
South African Police
Service
Watch out Crooks, new top cop could use the bones to nab you -
23 January
Will South Africa win the war on crime? For Acting National Police
Commissioner Tim Williams, the answer may well lie in the throwing
of the bones. The country's new top cop,
who replaced embattled Jackie Selebi earlier this month, is
believed to be a fully trained sangoma. -
The Herald Online
website
Taxation Matters
Tax Guide for Share Owners
SARS website
Time to
liquidate? - 21 January
In terms of current legislation dividends from capital profits
that pre-date the introduction of capital gains tax (CGT) in 2001,
or from profits that pre-date the introduction of the secondary
tax on companies (STC) in 1993 are exempt from tax when
liquidating a company. – Cape
Business News website
Miscellaneous
Free the content! - 22 January
South African open source apostle Mike Shuttleworth and Wikipedia
co-founder Jimmy Wales have joined a call issued in Cape Town
today for governments and publishers to make publicly-funded
educational materials available freely over the Internet.
Shuttleworth and Wales are pushing a "Cape
Town Open Education Declaration" as part
of "a dynamic effort to make learning
and teaching materials available to everyone online, regardless of
income or geographic location". -
ITWeb website
Campaign launched to transform education - 22 January
A coalition of educators, foundations, and Internet pioneers has
urged governments and publishers to make publicly-funded
educational materials available freely over the Internet. The
declaration has already been translated into over a dozen
languages and the growing list of signatories includes: Jimmy
Wales ; Mark Shuttleworth
; Peter Gabriel, musician and founder of Real World Studios
; Sir John Daniel, President of Commonwealth of Learning;
Thomas Alexander, former Director for Education at the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
; Paul N Courant, University Librarian and former Provost,
University of Michigan ; Lawrence Lessig,
founder and CEO of Creative Commons ;
Andrey Kortunov, President of the New Eurasia Foundation
; and Yehuda Elkana, Rector of the Central European
University. - Computing SA
website
See also
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/22/EDRTUJ346.DTL
Mystery luggage owner traced to Mauritius - 24 January
A Knysna land surveyor made a curious discovery just above the old
dumping site at the Sedgefield River Mouth on Monday, when he
found three new suitcases in the bushes. Pat Tarboton, fearing the
owner of the luggage had come to a bad end, embarked on a wild
goose chase of phone calls that eventually led him to locating the
owner, Judi Chapman of Perth, Australia, in Mauritius. -
The Herald Online
website
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Africa
Liberia
Liberians exhume the catalogue of horrors - 21 January
The day after the opening of the Taylor trial at The Hague, the
Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) has begun its public hearings in Monrovia.
A first group of victims of the civil wars that devastated Liberia
from 1989 to 2003, in which Charles Taylor played a central role,
testified of the atrocities committed by all factions. -
International Justice
Tribune website
* * * Subscription service * * *
I ate
children's hearts, ex-rebel says - 22 January
Milton Blahyi, a former feared rebel commander in Liberia's
brutal civil war, has admitted to taking part in human
sacrifices as part of traditional ceremonies intended to ensure
victory in battle. - BBC News
website
Butt Naked returns to Liberia to confess - 21 January
One of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known as Gen
Butt Naked for charging into battle wearing only boots, has
returned to confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying
he is responsible for 20 000 deaths. 37 year old Joshua Milton
Blahyi, who now lives in Ghana, returned last week to face his
homeland's truth and reconciliation commission. His nom de
guerre is derived from his platoon's practice of charging
naked into battle, a technique meant to terrify the enemy. Other
former warlords, though, have refused to ask forgiveness,
dismissing a commission many in Liberia see as toothless. Blahyi
is urging other former killers to come forward as the country
founded by freed American slaves in 1847 struggles to recover
from past horrors. - Associated
Press website
Rwanda
Rwanda
in mass circumcision drive - 22 January
Rwanda has launched a campaign to encourage all men to be
circumcised, to reduce the risk of catching HIV/Aids. A health
minister told the BBC that soldiers, policemen and students
would be asked to come forward first for circumcision. The UN
World Health Organisation has said male circumcision reduces the
risk of heterosexual HIV infection. But correspondents say it is
rare in Rwanda where the majority Christian population do not
practise it.
Rwanda has successfully managed to lower the spread
of Aids in recent years thanks to its HIV campaign. -
BBC News website
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Asia
India
Section 377 and the dignity of Indian homosexuals - 18
November 2006
This paper seeks to determine the extent and manner in which the
proscription of "carnal intercourse
against the order of nature" under
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 makes criminals out of
homosexuals. Article by Alok Gupta. -
International Gay and Lesbian
Human Rights Commission website
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Australasia
New Zealand
Personality factors as predictors of persistent risky driving
behavior and crash involvement among young adults - 26 July
2007
Key points : there is a higher incidence of persistent risky
driving behaviors in young adult males than in young adult females
; personality characteristics are associated with persistent risky
driving behaviors, and their potential outcomes, in young adult
males ; for males, high levels of aggression are associated with
being a driver involved in a crash ; high levels of alienation and
low levels of traditionalism are associated with being a driver
involved in an injury crash in young adult males. Paper by Pauline
Gulliver and Dorothy Begg, Dunedin School of Medicine. -
Injury Prevention
website
Keyphrase :
Road-safety interventions
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Europe
Czechoslovakia
That mushroom cloud? They’re just svejking around - 24 January
One Sunday, several months ago, early risers gazing at Czech
Television's CT2 channel saw picturesque
panoramas of the countryside, broadcast to the wordless
accompaniment of elevator music. It was the usual narcoleptic
morning weather show. Then came the nuclear blast. Across the
Krkonose Mountains, or so it appeared, a white flash was followed by
the spectacle of a rising mushroom cloud. A web
address at the bottom of the screen said Ztohoven.com. Ztohoven, to
no one's great surprise, turned out to be
a collective of young artists and friends. Now half a dozen members
of the group face up to three years in jail or a fine or both,
charged with scaremongering and attempted scaremongering. The trial
is set for March. Some Czechs expressed outrage over Ztohoven's
action but in general it drew a mild, tolerant, even amused public
response. The incident instead has highlighted an old Czech
tradition of tomfoolery that is a particular matter of national
cultural pride. - New York Times
website
Environment
Call to abandon biofuels targets - 21 January
The EU should abandon its biofuels targets because they are
damaging the environment, a committee of MPs says. -
BBC News website
Italy
Property in Venice : pied-à-terres and palazzi - 23 January
With the advent of more frequent and cheaper flights, the number
of tourists has risen while the number of resident Venetians
diminishes (the figure has dropped by 50% in the past 60 years).
The result is that there are approximately 240 tourists for every
Venetian. One way to overcome this problem is to join the
gathering throng of foreigners who are buying second homes in
Venice. It might not be everyone's idea of a holiday home
destination - no one in their right mind would want to be there in
August when the canals can get a bit whiffy - but the investment
can pay off. Not only does it potentially open doors to Venetian
society but the rise in tourist numbers coupled with the famously
high price of hotel rooms is propelling demand for apartments to
rent ; the city's buy-to-let market is
shaping up to be rather profitable. -
Country Life website
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Middle East
Saudi Arabia
S
Arabia eases laws on solo women - 22 January
The authorities in Saudi Arabia have decided to end a ban on
unaccompanied women staying in the country's hotels. A woman can
now stay in a hotel alone as long as she carries identification.
Based on a royal decree, the move marks a break from religious
codes requiring women to be accompanied by a male guardian at all
times. The decree allowed the Ministry of Trade to outline new
regulations simply requiring women to show photographic ID to
hotel managers. - BBC News
website
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United Kingdom and
Ireland
Banking
Darling
unveils Rock rescue plans - 21 January
Chancellor Alistair Darling is to set out rescue plans for
Northern Rock, which will pave the way for a private sector
buy-out of the stricken bank. -
BBC News website
Courts
Justice at last for family as wife-killer gets life - 25 January
A South African who boasted he could kill his wife in Ireland and
only get a few years for manslaughter was jailed for life yesterday.
Anton Mulder murdered Colleen Suzanne Mulder after telling a friend:
"I am going to kill her. In this country it's easy. Five or six
years jail and I'm still young when I'm out then". Mulder, who is
originally from Durban in South Africa, was found guilty yesterday
after a re-trial at the Central Criminal Court of murdering his wife
at their home in Co Meath before Christmas 2004. -
Independent website
Education
Cookery classes to be compulsory - 22 January
Cookery lessons are to be compulsory in England's secondary
schools for children aged 11 to 14. Pupils will learn to cook for
an hour a week for one term. Poorer pupils' ingredients will be
subsidised. - BBC News
website
Human Rights
How
people smugglers were stopped - 21 January
One of the UK's biggest people-smuggling trials has come to an
end, but it's only now, after the lifting of reporting
restrictions, that details of the main players can be revealed.
He boasted of having smuggled 6 000 people into the UK but
detectives fear the real total could be far higher. Yusuf
Mewaswala, who has been jailed for 10 years for breaching
immigration law, was the leader of a gang that forged passports,
bribed officials, created fake documents and made many thousands
of pounds by smuggling people from India to the UK and North
America, via South Africa. The scam involved villagers from the
Gujarat region of India. First, they would travel to South
Africa using their legitimate passports. Once there, they would
be given fake South African passports and ID cards, obtained
through a corrupt official the gang had bought off.Now the
immigrants were ready to travel to the UK, knowing that no visa
was needed for South African nationals. -
BBC News website
Land
Affairs and Property
Gated developments : a scourge on society? - 20 January
We live in strange times. No doubt you've
read about the remarkable seven-bedroom mansion that has just sold
for £35m in leafy Hampstead, north London. Yet, while there has
been plenty of coverage about its interior, what hasn’t been so
widely reported is that only the chosen few ever got to see it.
Not only did prospective purchasers have to pay £1
000 for the privilege of reading its leather-bound
brochure, they had to be vetted before being allowed in. Palladio,
the home in question, sits in an exclusive gated cul-de-sac, and
its high-roller neighbours are seriously protective of their
private patch. Yes, this is an extreme example from the top end of
the property market, but it demonstrates a growing trend :
exclusion. - Times
Online website
Miscellaneous
Clients of solicitor Lynn must now pay bank €2m - 24 JAnuary
A married couple who were clients of fugitive solicitor Michael
Lynn were yesterday ordered to pay €2m to Bank of Ireland after
the missing lawyer handled multiple mortgages for them in relation
to a number of properties. In the first such legal action against
Lynn's clients, Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank secured judgments
against Air Corps officer John Mulkearns and his wife Lorna
Farrell, Dublin, in the Commercial Court yesterday. Bank of
Ireland was told the loans advanced to the couple were to clear
several existing mortgages with other banks, to repay Lynn €200
000 and to buy five properties in Bulgaria from Lynn's company,
Kendar Holdings Ltd. But after following
Law Society proceedings
against Lynn, Bank of Ireland moved to have its loans repaid as it
feared the couple would not be able to meet their repayments. -
Independent website
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United States
Company Law
Supreme
Court rejects Enron case - 23 January
The US Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Enron investors
pursuing investment banks that put together financing deals for the
energy trader. The justices refused to hear arguments in the $40bn
(£20bn) class-action suit linked to the 2001 collapse of Enron. The
banks were Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Credit Suisse First Boston.
The rejection had been expected after a ruling last week in another
securities fraud case that limited the ability of shareholders to
pursue third parties. - BBC News
website
Education
New York measuring teachers by test scores - 21 January
New York City has embarked on an ambitious experiment, yet to be
announced, in which some 2 500 teachers are being measured on how
much their students improve on annual standardized tests. The move
is so contentious that principals in some of the 140 schools
participating have not told their teachers that they are being
scrutinized based on student performance and improvement. -
New York Times website
Foreign Relations
US asking Iraq for wide rights on war - 25 January
With its international mandate in Iraq set to expire in 11 months,
the Bush administration will insist that the government in Baghdad
give the United States broad authority to conduct combat operations
and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from
Iraqi law, according to administration and military officials. -
New York Times website
Health
Proposed law would require tanning regulations in Michigan -
21 January
A prespring break trip to a tanning salon could soon come with
some extra paperwork. A bill pending in the state House would
strengthen existing health code requirements that customers under
18 get a parent's permission to get that manufactured golden glow.
All customers regardless of age would have to sign a statement
indicating they had read a written health warning upon their first
visit, and signs noting the potential dangers of ultraviolet
radiation would have to be posted. -
mlive website
Labour Issues
The effect of minimum
wages on wages and employment : county-level estimates for the
United States - January 2008
We use county-level data on employment and earnings in the
restaurant-and-bar sector to evaluate the impact of minimum wage
changes on low-wage labor markets. Our empirical approach is
similar to the literature that has used state-level panel data to
estimate minimum-wage impacts, with the difference that we focus
on a particular sector rather than demographic group. Discussion
paper no.3300 by by John T Addison, McKinley L Blackburn [and]
Chad D Cotti. - IZA website
Land Affairs and
Property
Feeling misled on home price, buyers are suing their agent -
22 January
Agents representing buyers rarely had the opportunity to make
mistakes during the last real estate boom, in the late 1980s,
because the job hardly existed then. For decades, residential
transactions almost always involved brokers who, whatever
assistance they gave the buyer, legally represented only the
seller. The defendant in the Ummel case which goes to trial in
North County Superior Court on Monday is Mike Little, a veteran
agent with ReMax Associates. He will argue that Marty Ummel, who
brought the case with her husband, Vernon, is trying to shift the
blame for the couple's own failures of
research and due diligence. Real estate lawyers and brokers say
the case is likely to be the first of many in which regretful or
resentful buyers seek redress from the agents who found them a
home and arranged its purchase. -
New York Times website
New York Real Estate Lawyer's blog
http://www.nyrealestatelawblog.com/
Minerals and Energy
EPSA's State of the energy industry - 18 January
John E Shelk, president and CEO of the Electric Power Supply
Association (EPSA) today will discuss the important role of
competitive suppliers in meeting the nation's future electricity
needs. Shelk will speak on a panel on climate change and
legislative and regulatory issues during the United States Energy
Association's 4th Annual State of the Energy Industry conference
at the National Press Club. -
Electric Power Supply Association website
Taxation Issues
A $200-a-gram tax on cocaine - 23 January
Among the hundreds of proposals contained in Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s
second executive budget, which he unveiled on Tuesday in Albany,
is a provision that would impose a $3.50-a-gram tax on marijuana
and a $200-a-gram tax on other illegal drugs, like cocaine. -
New York Times
website
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International
Environment
How traffic pollution damages the heart - 26 January
Living close to a busy road can damage your heart - and now we're
closer to understanding why. Previous studies had suggested that
people living in polluted areas are more at risk of heart disease.
It now seems that a greater hazard may be posed by so-called "ultrafine"
particles. The latest study in mice has shown that they clog up
arteries with fatty atherosclerotic deposits, and chemically alter
"good" cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol,
reducing its beneficial effects. -
New Scientist website
* * * Subscription required * * *
Finance
Regulators poised to slap financial markets in handcuffs - 25
January
Any banker, trader or investor asked to invent the perfect market
environment for creating wealth beyond the wildest dreams of avarice
would come up with conditions akin to those of the past decade. So
what went wrong?
The financial community, through greed, stupidity and
hubris, has fouled its own sandpit.
- Mail & Guardian
website
Labour Issues
Global labor market : from globalization to flexicurity - 2008
The effects of globalization on employment justify augmenting the
fundamental principles articulated in the ILO's
1998 Declaration by including a global goal of decent work with a
living wage. Adding the principle of decent work with a living
wage can help keep labor law relevant because it can be the
organizing principle for an array of unions and other groups
interested in worker welfare to push for its implementation as a
matter of international, regional and national law. Article by
Michael J Zimmer. - Social
Science Research Network website
Land Affairs and
Property
Who owns the moon? - 19 January
The prospect of large-scale commercial space travel is music to
the ears of Dennis Hope, who has been anticipating this era for
more than a quarter-century. The Nevada-based entrepreneur
is the founder and self-proclaimed "Head Cheese" of Lunar Embassy,
an online portal that parcels out moon land for less than it costs
to stay overnight at a Motel 6. For $19.99, Hope's pie-in-the-sky
sales pitch promises that you too can snap up your very own
one-acre lunar plot. Until a couple of years ago, no one paid much
attention to Hope. With crude oil nearing $100 a barrel,
entrepreneurs focused on petroleum alternatives are looking at the
green cheese in a whole new light. -
Salon website
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United Nations
Global E-Government Survey 2008
From E-Government to Connected Governance assesses the e-government
readiness of the 192 Member States of the UN according to a
quantitative composite index of e-readiness based on website
assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource
endowment. ICTs can help reinvent government in such a way that
existing institutional arrangements can be restructured and new
innovative arrangements can flourish, paving the way for a
transformed government. -
United Nations website
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