Coke and Pepsi told to spill secrets or face ban
From Ashling O'Connor in Bombay

INDIAÂ’S highest court yesterday demanded that Coca-Cola should reveal its secret formula for the first time in 120 years.

The Supreme Court ordered the US soft drinks maker, along with its rival PepsiCo, to supply details of the chemical composition and ingredients of their products after a study released this week claimed that they contained unacceptable levels of insecticides. :yikes:

Read more here....

Currently using pay as you go mobile on vodafone uk and I have bought an American T-mobile sim (also p-a-y-go) to use in America when we go on holiday in a week. Does the phone need to be unlocked or would that only apply for a UK T-mobile SIM?

Good morning, everyone! :am: I've had a lekker lie in & am still sitting in my pjs. My travel guide to Mallorca arrived yesterday so I have lots of reading to do. :tourist: Two weeks from today, we'll be on the plane heading for our belated honeymoon on the shores of the Med. :yes: Other than a few odd jobs around the house, we plan to do absolute zip this weekend.

I hope you all have a brilliant weekend, no matter what you are doing! :weekend:

I can just see lots of fish swimming round with the St Andrews Cross or Union Jack tattoo'd on their sides

Most households can expect to fork out R1 000 more a month
August 04, 2006 Edition 2

Yvonne Grimbeek

Consumers, already battered by rising petrol and house prices, will have to tighten their belts even more before the end of the year.

When the Reserve Bank met in Pretoria yesterday, Governor Tito Mboweni announced an increase in the interest rate of 0.5%, raising the prime lending rate to 11.5%.

On June 8, he announced a 0.5% increase in the interest rate, which meant an almost immediate increase in bond rates.

The latest increase will add R374 to the monthly bill of home owners paying off a house priced at R550 000. However, most households will probably end up paying more than the median increase.

On Wednesday, the petrol price increased to R6.80 a litre at the coast. This was the seventh increase this year.

Effectively, this means that the driver of a car with a 50-litre tank is paying R77 more to fill the tank than on January 1.

For most commuters, the latest increase could see their fuel bills increase by almost R400 a month.

And there is more bad news.

The increases mean most households could be forking out at least R1 000 a month extra, because the increase in the fuel price and the bond rate has an almost immediate knock-on effect on food and consumer goods. Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said it was "worrying" that everything to do with transport would be affected by the fuel price hike. Fuel hikes were inflationary, impacting on all spheres of life - something which would be most acutely felt by the poorest of the poor.

"The domino effect on the rest of the economy is real, but also difficult to be mitigated against," she said.

"South Africa is a consumer of imported crude oil and does not have control over the pricing of fuel," said Sonjica.

The government was keen on a speedy resolution to the situation in the Middle East, realising it was impacting on overall world fuel prices. It was co-operating with other governments in search of alternative fuels to ensure the security of supply for the country, Sonjica said. The bad news is that consumers can expect at least one more increase in the next few months. The Automobile Association's Gary Ronald said the worst-case scenario would see the price go up to more than R7 a litre before December.

The Chief Economist of the Standard Bank, Goolam Ballim, believes the increase will normalise consumer spending but will not lead to major problems in the average South African household.

August 4, 2006

Moody's Economy.com said that while it expected the South African Reserve Bank to maintain its hawkish tone in the coming months, leaving the door open for another rate hike later in the year, it did not expect the bank to embark upon an aggressive tightening campaign.

"Even though pipeline inflationary pressures have picked up in recent months, we are not anticipating an inflation outbreak in South Africa and our current forecast is for overall consumer price inflation to come in around 3.8 percent in 2006, as higher borrowing costs take some of the steam out of consumer spending," it said.



Nevertheless, with household debt levels at a record high it said it was not ruling out further monetary tightening action from the central bank this year.

"Regarding South Africa's financial markets, we foresee more of the same tumultuous trading action, with volatility continuing to ride high in the near term until a more clear picture on both domestic and global inflation conditions and interest rate cycles can be determined," it added. - I-Net Bridge

Something to get you going for the weekend....

quite funny :jive:

Click here

Zimbabwe 'welcomes' deportees News report.

This is my daughter - please visit

http://cambridge.gumtree.com/cambridge/97/5426197.html


:edit: ForumAdmin permitted