The Mysterious Madness Called QE Quantitative Easing (“money printing”. Investors love it. It’s an avalanche of liquidity that drives up the value of interest-sensitive investments. Everybody gets richer. Or so it seems. But the mere hint that the US central bank soon intends to cut back on this flood of easy money triggered the equivalent [...]Quantitative Easing Madness is a post from: TheBizSense Views & Forecasting



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Pretoria - Small-scale sugar cane farmers in the Nkomazi area of Mpumalanga are to benefit significantly from government’s Jobs Fund and are expected...

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Boksburg – Action to save the lives of women and children will be on top of the agenda as leaders from African countries meet to find solutions to...

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Olympic marathoner Magdalena Lewy Boulet celebrates 40th birthday by competing in first Masters national championship at GNC Live Well Liberty Mile PITTSBURGH – Olympic marathoner Magdalena Lewy Boulet will celebrate her 40th birthday by debuting in her first Masters national championship at the USA Masters 1 Mile Road Championship. Along with her, several American and [...]Masters Mile Road Championships is a post from: Time-to-Run USA



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The first African Marine Debris Summit highlighted the urgent need for a collective action to be taken against the problem of marine debris facing the continent of Africa.* The Summit – entitled “African lessons to inspire local actions” – took place at the SA National Biodiversity Institute at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and focused specifically [...]African Marine Debris Summit is a post from: EconSpire



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Harare - The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said on Wednesday that general elections were conducted free and fair and that vote counting had begun.

ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau told a press briefing held after the polls were closed that she believed the elections were free and fair based on reports filed by ZEC officers on the ground.

About 6.4 million people, about half of the population, were registered to vote in over 9 000 polling stations to choose between the 89-year-old veteran President Robert Mugabe and his long-time political rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for the country's top post for the next five years.

Voter turnout was high as queues were still long in the provinces of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East and Matabeleland North by 6pm local time, an hour before the polls were officially closed, Makarau said. Voters who were already in the queues were allowed to proceed even until past mid-night.

Statistics can only be available on Thursday as earliest, Makarau said.

Meanwhile, vote counting has started in places where the polls were closed. The electoral body said results can be expected in five days.

Makarau said some minor glitches were reported during the one-day vote, including the arrest of 20 people in Harare for trying to use fake registration slips to vote, but the impact was minimal.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, the third-ranking official in Tsvangirai's MDC-T party, alleged irregularities in the polls. including the voters' lists and ballot paper.

However, the peaceful electoral process got the nod from chief AU observer, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who described the process as "peaceful, orderly, free and fair."

Pitted against each other in the third presidential race in a decade, both Mugabe and Tsvangirai were hopeful that they will romp to victory.

After casting his vote, Tsvangirai described this year's election as "historic" and "emotional" for all Zimbabweans.

Mugabe, on the other hand, said his chances of victory were as good as in 1980 when his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party grabbed 57 out of 80 parliamentary seats upon independence from Britain.

After casting his vote in a primary school in south Harare, Mugabe said he and his party have "lots of things to do to get our economy back on its feet."

A run-off would take place on 11 August if no candidate secures over 50 percent of the vote.

Police announced the arrests of several Tsvangirai supporters for illegal possession of electoral forms used by the ZEC to compile election results.

Tsvangirai pledged in one of his rallies that his party will do parallel vote counting to avoid rigging by the poll authorities.

Police national spokesperson Charity Charamba said the ZEC has the sole mandate of collating and making public poll results.

She said people who attempt to announce poll results before the ZEC does, will risk arrest. - SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua

Ten teams took to the courts competing in the World Transplant Games Volleyball Tournament with Hungary taking the title in a humdinger of a final.

Hungary who received silver in the previous World Transplant Games in Sweden arrived at the University of KwaZulu Natal Westville campus with one mission in mind:, to claim gold and they did this in a nail-biting final where they met Argentina.

The game lasted three extremely tight sets with the eight points being the difference in the final results. Argentina who dethroned defending champions, the Netherlands in the semi-finals took the first set 25-20.

Hungary then replied in the second set going on top by just one point, taking it 25-24 and levelling the score at one set a-piece. The game continued in dramatic style in the third set as both teams continued to perform out of their socks in the final set. In a clincher of a third set, Hungary just got the edge on Argentina taking the set 16-14 and claiming a sweet victory.

The darling of the Hungarian team, Yvette Jasab,at 21 the youngest member of the team proudly said, “We won everything, it is a great feeling. We came second in Gothenburg in 2011 and came here to beat Netherlands. We knew the games would be tough but our opponent, Argentina made us work very hard for our gold.”

Defending champions, Netherlands who have dominated the last two Games were dramatically knocked out by Argentina in the semi-finals in a three set game. Netherlands who came second in the pool games faced first placed Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the third and fourth play-offs.

In a replay of the pool games, Great Britain went down to the Netherlands, thus allowing the defending champions to walk away with a medal, albeit bronze.

Ace referee Sihle Gumede who has just returned from Congo having participated in an International Referee Course was impressed with the level of competition at the games, “They are not professional but they certainly are making up for it with their commitment and passion. You can see that they love what they are doing! The supporters were fantastic cheering their teams on. The event was well organised with all the teams arriving on time.”

Event organiser, Lawrence Naidoo was overjoyed by the success of the day, “It is not every day we host a major international event. It was something else watching all of these games here today! What a privilege it was to be entertained by these phenomenal role models who have taken their second chance in life and are able to be so active. It truly has been an excellent tournament.”

image by Val Adamson

Results:

1 Hungary, 2 Argentina, 3 Netherlands, 4 Great Britain and Northern Ireland

British mining giant Vedanta Resources has been humiliated in the run-up to its London AGM on Thursday, after a series of tribal villages in India voted against the company’s plans to build a bauxite mine on their sacred mountain.

The village meetings (gram sabhas) are taking place in Dongria Kondh communities following a landmark Supreme Court order in April 2013 which ruled that all communities affected by the Vedanta Resources project must be consulted – a major victory in the recognition of the rights of tribal peoples to have a say in projects on their land.

However, the Odisha state government has singled out only twelve villages out of more than a hundred villages to conduct the consultations, a policy condemned by activists, India’s Minister of Tribal Affairs, and leaders of the Dongria and Majhi Kondh tribes. The Dongria have demanded all affected villages are consulted and are organising their own consultations in the remaining villages.

Eight villages have voted so far – and all have voted unanimously against the mine.

The Dongria’s united stand against the mine has been heralded as courageous, amidst mounting intimidation and harassment by police and paramilitaries since the April ruling. Dongria women say they fear going into the forest because of the heavy police presence.

Putri, a Dongria woman, sent this message to Vedanta ahead of its AGM: ‘This Niyamgiri Hill is our God, our Lord, our Goddess, our father, our mother, our life, our death, our flesh, our blood, our bones. We get our food, drink and air from Niyamgiri and it sustains our life. It is therefore our right to stand together to protect and safeguard Niyamgiri.’

Criticism has also been directed at the local government’s selection of the twelve villages – Dongria spokesmen report that one village consists of just one non-resident family and that new houses are being hastily built by the government to bring outsiders into some of the villages.

Consultations will run until August 19, 2013, after which the final decision about the mine will lie with the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Stephen Corry, Survival International’s Director, said, ‘Despite facing intimidation and harassment at every turn, the Dongria have shown truly inspiring determination and courage in their stand against the Vedanta mine. We hope that this process, flawed though it may be, marks a new shift in India towards companies requiring the consent from tribal people before embarking on projects on their land.’

IAAF Diamond League, Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, QE Olympic Park – 26/27 July 2013 Valerie Adams continued her amazing streak of unbeaten competitions with a completely dominant win at the London Diamond League shot put. Adams best throw of 20.90m is the best in the world this year and 20 centimetres better than her 2012 Olympic [...]Adams continues unbeaten is a post from: Time-to-Run New Zealand



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Pretoria - The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) says it is confident of running smooth and credible harmonised elections on Wednesday when Zimbabweans go to the polls to elect a president, Members of Parliament and local government representatives.

ZEC Chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said on Monday that the electoral body had learnt lessons from the hiccups of the special vote two weeks ago for security service personnel on duty during polling and had now put in place measures to ensure that voting was conducted smoothly.

The special vote, which was mainly for police officers and other voters who would be on duty on the main voting day, was marred by logistical problems, which left many of the voters unable to cast their ballots.

“I am confident that we will run a credible poll and I have no nightmares at all about this election,” Makarau told the media.

She said by the end of Tuesday, the commission would be fully prepared to conduct the poll. As of Monday, ballot papers had been dispatched to almost all the 9 735 polling stations countrywide.

Makarau said some composite polling stations, made up of more than one serving point, had also been set up to facilitate smoother processing of voters.

“We are anticipating a higher turnout this time around,” she said, while urging Zimbabweans to go to the polling stations early to cast their ballot.

Makarau said 8.7 million ballot papers had been printed, with all the polling stations expected to get a cushion of 35 percent more than the required ballots.

“We will account for each and every ballot that is going to be used and the accounting will be done at the polling stations,” she said.

Makarau said the ZEC had dispatched copies of the voters’ roll to all the polling stations and had also engaged the Registrar-General to provide candidates with an electronic copy of the voters' roll as required by law.

More than 20 000 local and foreign poll observers have been accredited to observe the elections, while 1 331 journalists have been accredited to cover the polls. Foreign media personnel, at 887, make up the majority of the accredited journalists.

Meanwhile, Makarau warned all political parties against announcing election results, which she said was the prerogative of the commission.

“Only the ZEC can officially announce the results; if anybody does that, they will be going outside the law,” she said.

She said presidential election results would be announced within five days of polling, while those for local government could be announced the same day after polling has closed.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened that his party will announce the results ahead of the ZEC, but President Robert Mugabe on Sunday warned the MDC leader of the consequences of taking the law into his own hands. - SAnews.gov.za-NNN