Sweden drops some charges against Assange
Some of the Swedish sexual assault charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange have been dropped, having reached their five-year statute of limitations. A rape charge remains in the books, although Swedish prosecutors yesterday dropped charges for sexual assault...Amazon opens Joburg office, adds skills
Amazon is expanding its services in South Africa, opening a new office in Johannesburg and planning to hire 250 new skilled staff over the next 12 months. The new Amazon Web Services Office in Johannesburg complements the existing development centre in Cape Town, which has been operational since 2004. The company already supports a number of South African customers of all sizes, from start-ups to enterprises and public sector operations.
Hope glimmers for SA economy
South Africa may be suffering currently, but glimmers of hope are starting to emerge that undermine the more negative perceptions plaguing the local economy. This is according to Johann Els, senior economist for Old Mutual Investment Group, explaining in the company’s quarterly investment briefing that, while local growth is struggling under the burden of issues, such as electricity shortages, commodities under pressure and a weak rand, positive signs, such as an improving trade deficit and inflation figures, could be slightly buoying the economic outlook.
Ripple well-placed for global adoption
Ripple, a new payments system that has grown out of Bitcoin, could become a new standard for international payments. An IDC Financial Insights study builds on recent IDC analysis of the Bitcoin ecosystem by considering the potential of Ripple, an offshoot of Bitcoin which purports to be an open source, realtime payment settlement infrastructure, and the impact it could have on the financial services industry.