Namib Mills has announced an increase in prices on their various products with effect from 14 November 2022.

Namib Mills in a media statement yesterday said the price increase is necessitated by the decline in the value of the Namibia Dollar compared to the US Dollar, shedding 17 per cent of its value over the last couple of months.

The product range to increase includes maize meal at 13 per cent; instant maize porridge by 9 per cent; and Pasta Polana and Pasta King at 3 per cent.

Wheat flour and complete mix will rise by 5 per cent; bread at 4 per cent and sugar at 6.5 per cent.

The company noted that there is a strong correlation between the maize price and the exchange rate because of maize being exported from South Africa.

(NAMPA)

LD/EK/PS

2 (TEHRAN, 13 OCT, AFP) – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi today accused the United States of resorting to a ‘policy of destabilisation’ against the Islamic republic which is gripped by protests over Mahsa Amini’s death.

A wave of unrest has rocked Iran since the 22-year-old, an Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on 16 September after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

The street violence has led to dozens of deaths, mostly of protesters but also members of the security forces.

Hundreds have also been arrested.

‘Following the failure of America in militarisation and sanctions, Washington and its allies have resorted to the failed policy of destabilisation,’ Raisi said at a summit in Kazakhstan.

Washington has imposed rounds of crippling sanctions on Tehran since 2018 when then US president Donald Trump withdrew his country from a nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.

AFP

3 (ROME, 13 OCT, AFP) – Italy’s parliament meets for the first time today since the far-right won elections last month, a key step in the process of forming a government.

Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, secured a historic 26 percent of the vote in 25 September polls.

But she can only form a government with her fractious allies, Matteo Salvini, head of the far-right League, and Silvio Berlusconi, founder of right-wing Forza Italia.

The three leaders have been tussling over the formation of a cabinet able to manage the myriad of challenges facing the eurozone’s third-largest economy, notably soaring inflation and an energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine.

Meloni will almost certainly be nominated prime minister – the first woman to take the job in Italy – but must agree with her allies on ministerial appointments and a programme for government.

AFP

4 (MOSCOW, 13 OCT, AFP) – Russian-backed separatist forces in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine said TOday they had captured two villages near the industrial city of Bakhmut, posting small gains against Kyiv’s counter-offensive.

‘A group of DNR and LNR troops – with fire support from the Russian Armed Forces – liberated Opytine and Ivangrad,’ a statement released by separatist authorities said on Telegram, using acronyms for the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.

The villages are located just south of Bakhmut, a wine-making and salt-mining city that used to be populated by some 70 000 people and which Russian forces have been pummelling for weeks to capture.

The reported gains come after weeks in which Ukrainian troops have been clawing back large swathes of territory in the south and east of Ukraine – including Donetsk – controlled by Russian forces for months.

The Ukrainian military said in an update this morning that it had repelled Russian attacks near the villages of Bakhmutske, Ozaryanivka, Ivangrad, Bakhmut and Maryinka.

AFP

5 (KUALA LUMPUR, 13 OCT, XINHUA) – The number of deaths in Malaysia rose 34.5 per cent to 224 569 in 2021 from 166 970 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, official data showed today.

The crude death rate (CDR) also recorded an increase from 5.1 deaths in 2020 to 6.9 deaths in 2021 per 1 000 population, the Department of Statistics Malaysia reported.

All age groups recorded an increase in the number of deaths except the group aged 0-14 which saw the number decrease from 4 288 to 4 115 in 2021.

The number of deaths for the group aged 41-59 years recorded the highest increase by 44 percent, rising from 36 318 in 2020 to 52 282 in 2021.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency