BBC News with Sue Montgomery
President Obama has announced plans to pend">spend tens of billions of dollars on a huge infrastructure project to create jobs and boost confidence in the American economy. Over the next six years, he said, tens of thousands of kilometres of highway would be rebuilt, and airports and air traffic control systems
upgrade
d. Mr Obama said the plan would not only create jobs now but would make the US economy run better
in the long term
.
"Today, I am announcing a new plan for rebuilding and modernizing America's roads and rails and runways for the long term. I want America to have the best infrastructure in the world. We
used to
have the best infrastructure in the world. We can have it again. We are going to make it happen."
A strike by more than a million public sector workers in South Africa has been sus
pend
ed. Trade union leaders said they would halt the industrial action for three weeks to give the members more time to consider an improved pay offer. From Johannesburg, Nomsa Maseko.
South Africa's
crippling
public sector strike has been suspended for 21 days, pending the outcome of more consultations with union members. The three-week mass action disrupted learning at schools and essential services at hospitals. Government employees are still demanding an 8.6% salary increase and improved housing subsidies. The state
revise
d its offer to 7.5% last week after the strike intensified. Union leaders say the