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May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Singapore - Crude prices rose in Asia on Wednesday on renewed optimism over the US economy, the world's largest oil consumer, analysts said.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for August delivery, rose 75 cents to $97.64 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for August gained 37c to $113.98 in the afternoon.
"The economic news coming out of the US has been good. Factory orders were up in May, and crude markets have reacted to this," said John Vautrain, an analyst for Purvin and Gertz international energy consultancy in Singapore.
The US Commerce Department released figures Tuesday showing new orders for manufactured goods rose 0.8% month on month in May, after a 0.9% drop in April.
The markets will also be watching reports due later this week about unemployment for signs of strength in the US economy.
However, worries over the impact of the eurozone debt crisis are expected prevent crude prices from rising sharply, analysts said.
"The European debt problem in Greece and now Portugal is a preoccupation of the market," Jason Feer, analyst with Argus Media, said.