africa news

We are proud to be able to announce the launch of this state-of-the-art plant in Johannesburg,” said Steve Harrison, Head of Specialty Gases and Specialty Equipment, Linde. “Africa is an important growth market for our HiQ® specialty gases business and getting our production and supply capabilities nearer to our customers is critical to achieving this growth.

Vodafone announces that it is bringing M-PESA, one of the world’s most successful mobile money transfer services, to South Africa, to be deployed by its subsidiary, Vodacom South Africa and its South African banking partner.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a global leader in the consumer electronics industry, today announced the signing of a sponsorship agreement with the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the representative body for international football in Africa, for the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, ANGOLA 2010 to be held in Angola from January 10 to 31, 2010.

The South African Petroleum Authorities (Petroleum Agency SA) today awarded Shell a Technical Cooperation Permit for a one-year study to determine the hydrocarbon potential in parts of the Karoo Basin in central South Africa.

Daimler Buses will deliver 460 Mercedes-Benz brand coaches to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. The vehicles were ordered by Autopax Passenger Service Ltd. based in Pretoria, the company is South Africa’s largest operator of regular-service long-distance coaches.

The focus of the programme will be on strengthening countries’ ability to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the international health treaty that guides national efforts to counter the tobacco epidemic, and the establishment of a regional centre of excellence to support the development of countries’ capacity to resist the spread of tobacco use.

Volkswagen of South Africa is paying homage to the original Golf 1, with the introduction of a final limited edition Citi, aptly branded, Citi Mk1.

LG Electronics (LG), the world’s leading innovator of home appliances, announced today that the South African team of Jaco Pieter Willem Dreyer and Evgeni Igorevich Omeltchenko took home the title of LG Global Grand Master Chef at the LG Life Tastes Good Championship Global Final 2009.

After completing a flight development contract for the Indian Air Force (IAF), BAE Systems has delivered the 24th and final UK built Indian Hawk.

Persistent economic downturn, worldwide, reduced the Lufthansa passenger count in the first six months of 2009. The biggest German airline consequently failed to match its performance level in the first half last time round. Passenger numbers at Lufthansa fell in the first half of 2009 by 6.1 per cent to 26.7 million.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) was awarded the prestigious Coffey International Award for its application of technical expertise in innovative ways to address the greatest societal challenges of our time at the annual Business in the Community (BITC) Awards for Excellence yesterday.

The Enterprise Mobility Solutions Business of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced today that its point-to-point wireless Ethernet bridges are providing the communication infrastructure for an e-skills initiative launched by South Africa’s Department of Communications.

Lufthansa is expanding its services in West and Central Africa and adding another new destination to its network. From 15 July 2009, the airline will fly five times per week from Frankfurt via Accra, Ghana, to Libreville, the capital of Gabon. The route will be operated by Airbus A340 and A330 aircraft with a First, Business und Economy Class cabin.

Erlangen, Siemens is to continue the expansion of local value creation in growth markets. The company is to expand its gas turbine production in the state of Gujarat for approximately EUR40 million. A new production facility with a surface area of 14,000 square meters is planned.

The AIR FRANCE KLM Group and DELTA AIR LINES (NYSE: DAL) announced a new long-term joint venture whereby the partners will jointly operate their trans-Atlantic business by coordinating operations and sharing revenues and costs of their trans-Atlantic route network. The airlines will cooperate on routes between North America and Africa, the Middle East and India, as well as on flights between Europe and several countries in Latin America.

The provisioning of mobile telecom services to the Millennium Village in Pampaida, Kaduna State, Nigeria, is helping to advance achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

General Motors (NYSE: GM) today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2009, which predominantly reflect the effects of continued global economic pressures and low auto industry volumes worldwide.

Nokia today opened the virtual doors of the South African Nokia Music Store at music.nokia.co.za. The store offers millions of local and international tracks including Prime Circle, Karen Zoid, Proverb and Simphiwe Dana.

Across Africa, young boys and girls wake up each morning just like children here in the Washington D.C. area. The children are no different; they do chores, eat, play sports, and go to school. That is, if they can survive the mosquito bites that transmit the deadly malaria parasites. Those parasites kill an estimated 3,000 children each day in Africa.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and LG Electronics (LG) today announced a multi-year partnership to fight poverty and hunger in the drought-afflicted Horn of Africa region.