adminOld Mutual to sell Nordic unit for $3,2bn
LONDON — Insurer Old Mutual is to sell its Nordic business at a paper loss to Skandia Liv for 22,5 billion Swedish crowns ($3,2bn) to cut debt and return surplus capital from the deal to shareholders.
The businesses being sold comprise Old Mutual’s long-term savings and banking operations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden operating under the Skandia brand.
Europe debt woes prompt flight from risk
Singapore — Asian shares fell into bear market territory for the year and commodities and the euro nursed stinging losses yesterday, as fears that Europe’s debt crisis is still worsening prompted investors to dump riskier assets and seek shelter in the dollar.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s all plant trees this summer
TREES are life, miti hupenyu, izihlahla ziyimpilo.
This is the message that those who grew up in the 1980s were exposed to and it was a clarion call to preserve the environment.
Cherish Unity Accord
By Dosman Mangisi
We again approach that time of the year when we come together as a nation to commemorate that important day on our calendar in celebrating the signing of our valued Unity Accord.
Gaddafi daughter seeks ICC probe into father’s killing
ALGIERS — A lawyer for Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter said on Wednesday he had written to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ask if an investigation had been launched into the killing of her father and brother.
Death penalty won’t reduce crime: Zuma
Pretoria — There is no credible evidence to prove that re-introducing the death penalty in South Africa will reduce crime, President Jacob Zuma said yesterday.
DRC poll result not in doubt — Kabila
Kinshasa – Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila has accused critics of failing to understand the country, adding that the results of the polls were not in doubt despite some “mistakes”.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Kabila said: “People should appreciate that, over a period of ten years we have, as promised, managed to organise elections.”
Putin rules out new election in marathon show
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin dismissed calls to rerun a parliamentary election in a marathon phone call-in on Russian television yesterday and ignored most of the demands of protesters complaining of electoral fraud and demanding an end to his 12-year rule.
Chirac found guilty of corruption
Jacques Chirac, the former French president, has been handed a two-year suspended prison sentence after being convicted on two charges in a long-running corruption trial.
Chirac, who led France from 1995 to 2007, was found guilty of diverting public funds and abuse of trust over two cases in which prosecutors said he had paid members of his former party for municipal jobs that did not exist.
US forces mark end of Iraq mission
US defence chief Leon Panetta has officially ended the US’s military presence in Iraq by saying that “the dream of an independent and sovereign Iraq is now a reality” at a ceremony at the US military headquarters in Baghdad.