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Nearly two-thirds of Japanese voters prefer Prime Minister Naoto Kan to powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa as premier, media polls showed on Monday ahead of a September 14 ruling party leadership race that appears too close to call.

The winner of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leadership election is likely to be prime minister by virtue of the party’s majority in the powerful lower house and will have to cope with a strong yen, fragile economic recovery and deep structural woes.

DPJ members of parliament, local lawmakers and party members and supporters will take part in the race, which highlights a policy rift that could derail Kan’s efforts to curb a public debt already twice the size of the $5 trillion economy.

An Asahi newspaper survey found that 65 percent of respondents said Kan was more appropriate as prime minister, against 17 percent who backed Ozawa. A poll by the Yomiuri newspaper showed a similar result.

That gap widened among those who said they support the DPJ, with 73 percent in the Asahi poll saying that Kan was more appropriate as the country’s leader against 20 percent who supported Ozawa.

Domestic media say Ozawa, a 68-year-old political mastermind plagued by a scandal-tainted image, currently has a slight edge among 412 members of parliament from the DPJ, which swept to power for the first time a year ago.

But the opinion polls could affect undecided MPs as well as local lawmakers and rank-and-file party members, among whom media say Kan has an edge.

Support for Kan’s government jumped to 49 percent in the Asahi survey, up 12 points from the previous survey in August. The Yomiuri poll also showed a rise in support for Kan.

The Basque rebel group ETA called a halt to armed attacks on Sunday but the government said the declaration was not enough and urged the weakened organisation to renounce violence once and for all.

The group, which has killed more than 850 people in half a century of armed struggle for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France, has been crippled by arrests of its members and a rise in support among Basques for legal politics.

In the video, which appeared on the website of the Basque newspaper Gara, three masked and black-clad figures appeared seated under the ETA emblem depicting an axe and snake, and flanked by the Basque flag.

The central figure read a statement in the Basque language, then all three raised their right fists in the air.

"ETA makes it known that for several months now it has taken the decision not to carry out armed attacks," said a transcript of the statement posted on the site, translated into Spanish.

The statement did not make clear if the cease-fire was permanent, nor did the guerrillas say why they had decided to stop attacks.

The government has said it will not talk to ETA’s political supporters until they renounce violence for good. ETA has broken two truces in the past.

"Spanish society, a democracy like ours, demands from the terrorist group something very clear: put down your arms for good and disband," Leire Pajin, secretary of the ruling Socialist party, said in a radio interview.

Experts said the statement showed the group is unsure about its next moves. Journalist Luis Aizpeolea wrote in El Pais newspaper: "Everything points towards ETA buying time with the cease-fire while it decides on its future."

FADING SUPPORT

The government walked away from peace talks after ETA blew up a Madrid airport building in December 2006, killing two Ecuadoreans asleep in their cars and ending the group’s first "permanent cease-fire," which lasted just nine months.

A total of 62 suspected ETA members were arrested in the first six months of this year. Police arrested the group’s top leader, wanted for trying to kill Spain’s King Juan Carlos in 1997, in France in February in a joint Spanish-French dawn raid.

The shooting of a French policeman near Paris in March during a bungled getaway was ETA’s last fatal attack and the first murder of a French policeman, leading to vows from President Nicolas Sarkozy to hunt down the group’s supporters.

Many of those seeking independence for the mountainous Basque lands have turned away from violence and want to re-enter legal politics in time for municipal elections in 2011.

At one stage, around 15 percent of Basques sympathised with the struggle for independence, but support for violence is fading in the region, which already has considerable political autonomy from Madrid.

One of the leading members of ETA’s banned political wing Batasuna, Rufino Etxeberria, has called on the rebels to lay down their arms.

Traditional supporters of ETA are worried that separatism is losing ground in the Basque Country, where moderate nationalists lost control of the local government last year for the first time in decades.

The industrial area is suffering its share of Spain’s worst economic slowdown in half a century, which has brought national unemployment up to the highest in the euro zone at 20 percent.

At least eight policemen were killed and 13 wounded in a suspected suicide attack on a police station in north-western Pakistan Monday, police said, the third such attack in the country within a week.

Nearly 100 people were killed in suicide bombings on processions of minority Shi’ite Muslims in the eastern city of Lahore and south-western city of Quetta last week.

The attacks by militants linked to al Qaeda and Taliban ended a lull in violence after Pakistan was hit by the worst floods in its history, which have affected nearly 20 million people and made millions of people homeless.

In the latest attack, a suicide bomber drove his car into a police station in the town of Lakki Marwat.

"Eight dead bodies are lying in the police station. We are gathering more information," Abdul Rahim, a police official of the town told Reuters by telephone.

The Pakistani Taliban, who are now also seen as an increasing threat to the United States, claimed responsibility for attacks in Lahore and Quetta.

Friday, the Taliban also threatened to launch attacks in the United States and Europe "very soon," two days after the Washington added the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, to its list of "foreign terrorist organizations."

With two weeks to go until the ANC’s National General Council, questions were being raised about President Jacob Zuma’s strength as ANC leader.

In the last two weeks, the ANC Youth League has said no one automatically deserves a second term while Cosatu has said the Tripartite Alliance is dysfunctional.

As the public servants’ strike dragged on, more voices have called for Zuma to show leadership while his former backers on the left and the right of the ANC seemed to be cooling towards him.

 

“If he waits too long he then will be perceived as a weak leader,” said The Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) Somadoda Fikeni.

 

The Centre for Policy Studies Aubrey Matshiqi said he should move slightly away from the left and towards the youth league. He said while Zuma was unlikely to be recalled at the NGC, strong signals could emerge at the gathering that he will not have much support for a second term.

Pakistan resumed their troubled tour of England on Sunday after a fresh wave of corruption allegations in the worst crisis to hit cricket since the 2000 match-fixing scandal.

Shahid Afridi’s one-day side finished a distant second to world champions England in the first of two Twenty20 internationals in Cardiff after the captain had briefly threatened to turn the match in Pakistan’s favour.

Afridi resigned as the test captain after the first test against Australia in England this year following possibly the two most irresponsible innings ever played by a team leader in a five-day match.

He was succeeded by Salman Butt, who was suspended from all cricket along with Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif last Thursday following an investigation into reports in the News of the World newspaper that they had manipulated incidents in the fourth test against England.

A second chapter of revelations in the British tabloid on Sunday eventually generated more heat than light.

The newspaper said a fourth unidentified team member was being investigated and ran quotes from test opening batsman Yasir Hameed saying team mates were fixing "almost every match."

Hameed issued a statement on Sunday saying he had been duped into making the allegations by a News of the World reporter masquerading as an agent.

CANDID OUTBURST

"As I saw him as a friend and a potential agent I naively started to answer his questions," Hameed said.

"He asked me about the match-fixing allegations against the current three Pakistani players and if I had any further knowledge. As far as I can recall I only told him whatever I had already read in the newspapers about this matter."

Afridi questioned Hameed’s maturity and reliability, adding: "I don’t know who he was sitting with or in which situation he gave this message. I don’t know but we have known him for a long time and we can expect anything from him."

Eleven thousand people turned up to watch England’s first Twenty20 match since they won the World Cup in Barbados, 4,000 below the capacity at the Swalec stadium, but it was difficult to judge if disenchantment with Pakistan or heavy morning rain was the primary cause. England won by five wickets.

The dashing Afridi with his piratical long hair and beard is a player who will lift the spirits of both his team and their supporters in the remaining six one-day internationals and he was determined on Sunday to draw a line in the sand after the unhappy events of the past week.

"The people enjoyed the game. We got some good support as well," he said. "We have to play cricket; you will see us play some good cricket.

"It’s my job and the coach’s job to lift the morale and keep the guys in high spirits."

National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele on Sunday remained mum about the latest allegations against him regarding the leasing of new police headquarters.

The Sunday Times reported that some of his former generals had turned on him, accusing him of lying about property deals worth over R700 million and forcing them out when they refused to follow orders.

 

But last week, Cele told Parliament the generals left the force after he asked for their departments to be investigated.

Attending the police’s annual Commemoration Day at the Union Buildings on Sunday, Cele said it was the wrong time to talk about the allegations against him. But he vowed to give his side of the story soon.

“I will be briefing the media on the matter,” said Cele.

Cele has already held a press conference to deny any wrongdoing in lease agreements signed with a controversial businessman. Asked if this press conference will be different, he said the public will have to determine that.

He would not commit to a date but said he will speak out soon. Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa was also at the event but declined to comment.

A state of emergency after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake is keeping much of New Zealand’s second-biggest city shut on Monday but financial markets have mostly shrugged off the quake as the long-term economic impact is seen limited.

Many businesses in the South Island city of Christchurch remain closed as a state of emergency was extended until Wednesday after the country’s most damaging earthquake in 80 years tore up roads, smashed water and sewer pipes, and severely damaged many buildings.

New Zealand’s dollar eased slightly while government debt fell on fears of increased bond issuance but stocks were higher as the estimated NZ$2 billion (906 million pound) damage bill was seen relatively light and could not derail a rally fuelled from overseas markets.

Economists predicted the quake could eat into New Zealand’s economic growth this year and keep interest rates on hold until there is more clarity on the impact.

"Overall there will be a negative impact on economic activity, with Christchurch accounting for about 15 percent of GDP," ANZ-National Bank senior economist Khoon Goh said, adding the exact impact cannot yet be quantified.

"It also means the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will most likely be on hold in September," Goh said.

But some predicted the quake -- which claimed no lives and resulted in only two serious injuries -- could add to growth in 2011 as rebuilding efforts ramp up.

"We’ve got to move to the rebuilding and refocusing stages, how we get Christchurch up and running again," Prime Minister John Key told Television New Zealand.

Shares of New Zealand’s largest listed company, construction and building materials firm Fletcher Building Ltd jumped more than 4 percent on opening and last traded up 4.5 percent NZ$8.10.

Insurance and financial company AMP Ltd fell 4.6 percent in early trade to NZ$6.30.

The government’s state-disaster fund, the Earthquake Commission, is expected to be able to cover the cost of repairing the damage.

The epicentre of the quake was 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the west of Christchurch, a city of 350,000 which supports the agricultural-based economy of New Zealand’s South Island.

The Christchurch City Council estimated about 500 buildings have been damaged, with hundreds of people spending the first two nights in emergency shelters.

The quake was among the 10 strongest recorded in New Zealand, which sits between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, and records around 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which around 20 top magnitude 5.0.

It is the most damaging quake in New Zealand since the North Island city of Napier was devastated in 1931.

The last fatal quake was in 1968 when an earthquake measuring 7.1 killed three people on the South Island’s West Coast.

As strike weary South Africans braced for a fourth week of industrial action by public servants, it appeared unions could announce on Monday that the strike is over.

 

The Independent Labour Caucus said almost all unions had unanimously decided on their next step. 

 

State employees who had been on strike for almost a month now want an 8.6 percent wage increase and a housing subsidy of R1000 while government is offering 7.5 percent and R800.

“We have conducted several meetings, we are satisfied and we are extremely comfortable with the outcome. We are just extremely disappointed that we could not make the announcement because we think that we owe it to South Africa and to our members outside,” said the ILC’s Chris Klopper.

Meanwhile, Gauteng’s new Police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros said he would intensify security at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and other hospitals following an attack on a nurse.

 

On Sunday, Petros and Premier Nomvula Mokonyane visited Lynette Dube at Milpark Hospital where she remained in a critical condition.

 

Dube, who works in a surgery ward, was attacked while heading to work on Friday. Police said the evidence pointed to her attackers being striking public servants.

 

Petros said hospitals must remain operational.

 

“We have to strengthen the resources we deployed around there,” said Petros.

 

Mokonyane said while those who attacked Dube had every intension to kill her, she urged nurses to continue working.

 

“We are quite happy and we met with the doctors that are looking after her. We think that she will be out of the critical condition she is in,” said Mokonyane.

 

This is the second attack on a nurse following a stabbing in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday. 

Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said on Sunday that demanding a better salary cannot lead to lives being lost.

On Sunday afternoon she visited the Soweto nurse who was attacked on her way to work at the Chris Hani Baragwaneth hospital.

Lynette Dube is believed to have fallen victim to striking workers on Friday afternoon.

She suffered serious head injuries and was being treated at the ICU ward at Milpark hospital.

Mokonyane met with Dube’s family then moved on to visit the hospital.

“Such violence cannot be tolerated“,said Mokonyane.  

The attack was the second of its kind on a nurse in the space of 48 hours during the ongoing public servants strike.

On Thursday, a nurse had been stabbed at a hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

 

On September 2, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) commented on innovations and ideas for the ’Future of Health’ report co-created with the business culture blog PSFK. Here are nine concepts that are "great opportunities" for health in the future.

Information Blanket For Newborns: a baby blanket that regulates hot/cold and educates parents and caregivers on warning signs, growth, breastfeeding plus a bar code for health professionals to scan and monitor the baby over time.

Visual Dosage Instructions: the idea of using local artists to develop drug packaging/messaging with images to explain dosage information.

SMS Birth Registration: Creates a birth registration database that healthcare workers can text info to in order to monitor mother-child health and ensure birth certificates are recorded worldwide.

Little Village Board Game: a children’s board game to bring awareness to global health, food, water and sanitation. 

Give City: Social gaming for good -- sort of like Farmville for competitive giving.

Google Earth Health Codes: utilizing Google Earth to pinpoint the neediest communities in the world with detailed information on real-time epidemics as well as other vitals (births, deaths). 

Baby Bags: large health swag bags (imagine "blue-Ikea bag") with tape measures for handles imprinted with information to help caregivers manage children’s health and filled with essential items for a newborn.  

Teach Shirts: instructional t-shirts that show universal images on how to respond with basic first aid, CPR to educate ’virally’ in case of natural disasters and emergencies.

This Is Your Community: Incorporate global health campaigns into retail space displays and highlight aid workers.

To learn more about UNICEF/PSFK’s ’Future of Health’, go to: http://www.psfk.com/future-of-health and for more on UNICEF Innovation: http://unicefinnovation.org/

Climate change could reduce key harvests in China by a fifth if the gloomiest scenarios prove true, according to a study on Wednesday.

Publishing in the journal Nature, a team of Chinese scientists say China’s climate "has clearly warmed" over the past half century, gaining 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1960.

The hotspots were northeastern China with a warming trend of 0.36 C (0.65 F) per decade, and Inner Mongolia, with a warming of 0.4 C (0.7 F) per decade.

Nationally, heatwaves have become more common, the number of cold days has fallen sharply and glaciers that are vital river feeders are in retreat, they say.

The last century was the warmest period since 1600 and the country’s seven warmest years have all occurred in the past decade.

Climate extremes included droughts which hit the country in the 1960s, the late 1970s, early 1980s, the 1990s and in northeastern China in the last decade.

In 1998, floods inundated 21 million hectares (52.5 million acres) of land, destroyed five million homes in the Yangtze basin and inflicted 20 billion dollars in damage.

Floods this year affected 230 million people, of whom more than 15 million had to be evacuated from their homes, and left more than 4,200 people dead or missing, according to a toll issued on Tuesday.

The paper, lead-authored by Peking University environmental scientist Shilong Piao, warns of problems for China’s racing economy in coming decades if climate change bites hard.

Accurate prediction, though, is hard, it says.

"China experienced explosive economic growth in recent decades, but with only seven percent of the world’s arable land available to feed 20 percent of the world’s population, China’s economy may be vulnerable to climate change itself," it warns.

The biggest problem could be water stress, amplified by a growing and increasingly wealthy population.

Water is abundant in southern China but sparse in the country’s north, and overall China’s per capita water availability is only 25 percent of the world average.

"Many regions lie in transitional zones where water resources, and hence agricultural production, could be affected positively or negatively by changes in climate," the study says.

In the most favourable scenario, grain yields by mid-century could remain stable or benefit from the rise in carbon dioxide levels.

But in the worst scenario, there could be declines of four to 14 percent for rice, between two and 20 percent for wheat and between zero and 23 percent for corn in cases where these crops are rainfed rather than irrigated.

The comparison is the yields of these crops between 1996 and 2000. Any future improvements in agro-technology in coming decades are not factored in.

"The range of model results is large, implying large uncertainties," cautions the paper.

The many unknowns are reflected by the wide range in predicting warming for China as a whole -- from 1 C to 5 C (1.8-9.0 F) by 2100, depending on worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases.

Computer simulations for climate impacts have advanced substantially for modelling what will happen worldwide, but lag when it comes to predicting regional effects, especially on rainfall, the paper says.

"To reach a more definitive conclusion, future work must... develop a better understanding of the managed and unmanaged responses to crops to changes in climate, diseases, pests and atmospheric constituents."

Kenya’s telecommunications regulator on Wednesday told mobile phone users to ignore swirling rumours that receiving calls from some numbers appearing in red can cause brain haemorrhage.

A text message sent around since late Tuesday and seen by AFP said 27 people had died after they picked calls from numbers listed in the SMS.

"Please inform all your friends and relatives soon, it’s urgent," read the text.

But the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) said the message should be dismissed.

"Upon analysis of the messages, the commission has established the warnings are a hoax generated by unscrupulous people bent on causing fear and despondency among members of the public," a statement said.

"In addition, the alleged haemorrhage due to high frequency has no technical basis whatsoever."

The CEO of Kenya’s largest mobile phone company Michael Joseph said the text message was "a popular urban myth that has been perpetuated, especially in some Asian markets."

A startup intent on making it simple for anyone to teach online has received a million dollars in funding from "angels," technology industry successes backing peers with good ideas.

Udemy.com will use the cash to hire workers and ramp-up operations, co-founder Gagan Biyani said Tuesday in making the announcement.

"We want to essentially democratize education so that anyone can teach over the Internet," Biyani said. "We make it really easy for anyone to develop an online course."

Biyani and the two other co-founders have been the entire workforce since Udemy was launched in May in the northern California city of Palo Alto.

Most courses listed at Udemy on Tuesday were free to students. Topics ranged from how to start a business or use computer software tools to winning at poker or picking up women.

The course list included an online class by high-level Google executive Marissa Mayer titled "Ideas come from everywhere."

More than a thousand instructors have created courses at Udemy, with a host of offerings coming from prestigious US universities including Stanford, Yale, and MIT.

Biyani said that he and fellow founders Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar began working on Udemy about two years ago after meeting at Founder Institute, a training camp for entrepreneurs run by thefunded.com.

The financing won by Udemy is a prime example of how angel investors in the form of technology industry successes are stepping in to back people with cool new ideas, according to Adeo Ressi of thefunded.com.

He said that the amount of money being invested by venture capital firms (VCs) has sunk while folks reaping rewards at hot companies such as Google, Facebook, or Zynga are putting newfound wealth into startups that they like.

"You have a decline in venture capital with a really aggressive surge in angel investing," Ressi said. "These angels are essentially coming to the rescue of new startups."

Venture capital for startups dried up as the global economy melted down and the market made it daunting for young companies to go public with stock offerings when early investors are counting on big returns.

"The VC industry is really hurting," said VentureBeat editor Matt Marshall, executive producer of a DEMO event considered a premier showcase for technology startups. "Angels are big."

Ressi declared 2010 the year of the angel investor, saying he hasn’t seen this type of situation before in his more than 15 years as an entrepreneur.

"Professionals who made money in technology are investing in new companies at an unprecedented pace," Ressi told AFP.

"Small to mid-size mergers and acquisitions have created single-digit millionaires that are interested in putting that money to work to be multi-digit millionaires."

Employees at private companies such as Facebook are able to cash-in by selling options for future stock shares in flourishing markets that have sprung up for such deals.

"There is a new private marketplace making employees at private companies rich," Ressi said.

He distinguished between VCs and angels by saying the former are professional investors who follow hot trends while the latter are "passionate enthusiasts out to give something back" to the technology world while taking part in fun new ideas.

Udemy had won backing from two technology industry veterans before it turned to AngelList, an online forum for matching promising startups with folks that have cash to invest.

Serial entrepreneurs and investors Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant, who share startup advice at a Venture Hacks website, launched AngelList in February with a roster of more than 50 people looking to invest a total of about 80 million dollars this year.

The AngelList roster has reportedly grown into the hundreds.

Udemy was introduced to more than 25 potential investors in less than two weeks after the startup’s pitch got the AngelList stamp of approval and was forwarded to folks on the roster.

Interest was so strong that Udemy doubled its funding goal to a million dollars and wound up turning away some cash, according to Biyani.

"Angels are actually supporting a wider variety of companies than VCs ever have," Ressi said. "All different types of technology companies and software companies are being funded by angels that have been overlooked by VCs."

Builders have completed another stage of restoration of the Acropolis in Athens with the removal of scaffolding from the temple of Athena Nike, the head of renovation efforts said Friday.

"The entrance to the Acropolis is free of all scaffolding, a sight not seen since the end of the 1970s," Maria Ioannidou said, urging tourists to take advantage of it before more work begins on the Parthenon.

Overlooking the Propylaea, the small Ionic monument was the last site to be restored under a project which started in 2001 at a total cost of 42.6 million euros (54.7 million dollars).

Work on the temple, which required dismantling it, was delayed by damage to its marbles -- inflicted over time and during 19th century restorations.

Separate restorations of the Propylaea and Parthenon were completed in December and May respectively.

But the Parthenon will again be covered in scaffolding and surrounded by cranes for work on its western part to transfer six metopes, or sculptured marble blocks, threatened by pollution, to the Acropolis museum.

The Greek government promised in May to continue the restoration, despite a crippling financial crisis, with the help of European funds.

Ioannidou estimates that archaeologists have at least a decade of work ahead of them.

The buildings on the Acropolis, the hill overlooking Athens, date from the fifth century BC, a golden era for Athenian democracy, under leader Pericles.

Five people, including a three-year-old girl, have burnt to death after the minibus they were travelling in overturned and burst into flames in the Free State on Sunday afternoon.

The vehicle was travelling on the R70 between Senekal and Ventersburg when the driver lost control.

Netcare 911’s Chris Botha said the wreckage was completely engulfed in flames when paramedics arrived on the scene.

“Tragically five people had burnt to death. Four other people had sustained serious injuries and a further seven escaped from the carnage with only minor injuries. All the survivors were treated on scene and transported to the Senekal Provincial Hospital for further treatment,” he said.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)

South Africa’s civil servants’ strike is turning into a nightmare for some Zimbabwean teachers who migrated to the country during the country’s 10 year economic crisis.

Several have told Zimbabwe’s state media they are frightened by picketers and are considering going back home.

Zimbabwean teachers working in South Africa said during the week they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

With salaries back home now pegged at around R1300, pay packages south of the Limpopo are still attractive.

Several have told state media in Zimbabwe that they did not want to go on strike but are being forced to.

Going to work is like walking through the valley of death, teacher Takudzwa Marambire said.

There are at least 10,000 Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa, though not all of them will be formally employed in the education sector.

Many fled Zimbabwe during the 10-year economic crisis, when monthly salaries even at top schools dropped to as low as R130.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)

French screen legends Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu team up again in Potiche, a light-hearted drama set in the 1970s that examines the prejudices women faced then and still do today.

Deneuve, 66, plays the central character of Suzanne, the submissive housewife of umbrella factory owner Robert Pujol who represents the "potiche," or trophy wife of the title.

When the bullying, philandering Pujol is taken hostage by his disgruntled workers and falls seriously ill, Suzanne steps in to run the business and has instant success by negotiating with the workforce rather than confronting it.

A struggle for power is triggered at the factory in northern France when her husband recovers and returns to the family.

Deneuve, an Oscar-nominated actress who starred in movies including Belle de Jour and Indochine, said she believed that women’s place in society had improved over the last 30 years but that sexual equality was still some way off.

"I would like to think that a film like that can help women to have more recognition in our work, because there is still a very big difference between men and women, especially at work," she told reporters at the Venice film festival.

"With the same capacity a woman is not paid as a man, which is always the reflection of society," she added, speaking in English.

Potiche is one of 23 films in the main competition lineup in Venice, and has its official world premiere on Saturday.

Asked if she had ever been exploited the way her character is, Deneuve replied: "Like in the film I don’t think so, but I’m sure there have been some moments where I had the impression that I was used (because of) the way I was and the way I looked more than who I was."

"LOVELY PARTNER"

In Potiche, directed by France’s Francois Ozon, Suzanne enlists the help of Babin (Depardieu), a former lover whose affection for her is immediately reignited.

Babin wines and dines Suzanne, and at a night club the couple take to the dance floor in a scene reminiscent of Saturday Night Fever.

Deneuve and Depardieu have appeared on screen together several times, including in Francois Truffaut’s The Last Metro and Andre Techine’s Changing Times.

"He’s not someone I see very often in life," Deneuve said of Depardieu, who was not at the press conference in Venice.

"I’ve been working with him for such a long time now, over 25 years I think at least, so when I meet him ... really the impression is I saw him yesterday. We are always very close. He’s a very careful, very lovely partner to work with."

Also premiering in Venice on Saturday are Silent Souls from Russia and Italian comedy La Passione.

Economists predict the Reserve Bank will likely cut the repo rate by 50 basis points later this week.

Market analysts said on Sunday the low inflation levels and low economic growth numbers are two factors which could determine Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus’s decision to cut rates on Thursday.

The Reserve Bank slashed rates by 5.5 percentage points between December 2008 and March this year and a further cut could bring interest rates down to six percent.

Chief economist at the Efficient Group Dawie Roodt said a rate cut might not however be the right thing to do.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Sunday strike action by motor workers in the country looks set to continue this week.

Around 70,000 workers at petrol stations, workshops, production houses and dealerships are demanding a 15 percent wage increase while their employer is offering 6.6 percent.

Last week’s mass action dealt a blow to the economy and there have been reports of intimidation of non-striking workers at filling stations.

Negotiations with the Retail Motor Industry (RMI) and the Fuel Retailers’ Association (FRA) took place over the weekend.

But Numsa’s Karl Cloete said more workers will join the mass action on Sunday.

“We had the reopening of negotiations where the employer did not move on any specific demand. On Monday we continue on Monday from 1pm and of course the strike has intensified. More workers are expected,” he said.

(Edited by Deshnee Subramany)

Millions of Africans may lose a key source of livelihoods as a fifth of freshwater African species are threatened with extinction, the updated Red List of endangered species showed Thursday.

Scientists conducting a survey on 5,167 African freshwater species found that some 21 percent of species of fish, molluscs, crabs, dragonflies and aquatic plants were at risk of becoming extinct, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a statement.

As fish is the main source of protein and livelihoods for much of Africa’s poorest people, the disappearance of fish species could have a devastating impact on the local population, the IUCN noted.

Some 7.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are thought to depend on fisheries.

"If we don’t stem the loss of these species, not only will the richness of Africa’s biodiversity be reduced forever, but millions of people will lose a key source of income, food and materials," warned William Darwall, manager of the IUCN’s freshwater biodiversity unit.

In Lake Victoria, which stretches across Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya for instance, almost half -- 45 percent -- of 191 fish species studied were threatened with extinction or already extinct.

In Cameroon’s Barombi Mbo crater-lake, 11 species of fish -- some of which are key food sources, are highly threatened.

Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the IUCN’s species programme also noted the importance of freshwater ecosystems.

"Freshwaters provide a home for a disproportionate level of the world’s biodiversity," he said.

"Although they cover just one percent of the planet’s surface, freshwater ecosystems are actually home to around seven percent of all species," he added.