Recent reports suggest that YouTube will soon be charging people for watching videos on the website.

YouTube, the video website that is owned by Google, plans to offer paid subscriptions to some of the content on its site later this year.

The methods of paying have not been decided but it is believed that the company will follow different models across various channels for revenue earnings.

Released reports say that there may be various methods of paying ranging from ‘pay per view’ to yearly subscriptions.

According to The Mobile Indian, subscription model is likely to be adopted for online services in the beginning but will eventually be made available for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as time goes by.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this move by YouTube would add a new revenue stream for the company and its thousands of content partners, and it could potentially help the site lure new video creators who want a subscription model rather than rely only on advertising.

“We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models,” a YouTube executive was quoted on Wall Street Journal.

“There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we’re looking at that.”

For more details go to http://www.thenewage.co.za

A woman from Pretoria has tried in vain for 15 years to cancel he deceased mother’s SABC television licence, it was reported on Wednesday.

Capital Park resident Elizabeth van Zyl told Beeld her mother Martha Bezuidenhout died in Pretoria in August 1998.

“She was a pensioner who lived with us, and was the proud owner of a television with a valid licence. When she died, I made copies of her death certificate, wrote a nice letter, and posted it to the SABC.”

However, Van Zyl had since received countless postal demands addressed to her mother, and letters threatening court action.

She said she still had her mother’s ashes as she intended burying them with her father, in Durban.

“I wish the SABC would take me to court. I’d love to wait until they call her name, so I can stand up with the box of ashes, and say ‘here she is’,” Van Zyl told the newspaper

According to Beeld, SABC communication manager Christelle Keevy said she needed the licence number to deal with Van Zyl’s complaint.

-Sapa

Durban – Gordon Igesund has rejected as “mind games” Mali coach Patrice Charteron’s assertion that the pressure is all on Bafana Bafana heading into Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.

The Eagles have battled their way into the last eight, spurred on by the thought giving joy to their people back home, embroiled in civil war. And Charteron suggested after their 1-1 draw with Congo that the expectation was now on Bafana’s shoulders.

“We really wanted to give pleasure to our country,” said the Mali coach. “We now play away in the quarter-finals and it is difficult in this competition to get out of the group … the only thing I think is Bafana must win the tournament, and the pressure will be on them.”

However, the Bafana coach was having none of it. “I heard his comments and he is doing what most people do – taking pressure off his own team. Believe me there is pressure on every team at this tournament, all the players are nervous. There is as much pressure on him as there is on me,” said Igesund. “We all want to do well and advance to the semi-finals. He is playing mind games, classing himself as the underdog.

“Mali are ranked third in Africa and we are ranked 22nd, you figure it out,” he added later.

The Bafana coach certainly has a point. Mali are one of the powerhouse sides of the continental game, and finished third at last year’s Afcon.

South Africa were not even at that tournament, or the one preceding it. In fact, they are in their first Nations Cup quarter-final since, ironically, they lost 2-0 to host nation Mali in 2002.

For more news go to http://www.iol.co.za

Johannesburg – Five years after Gary Smith and his sister Karen Buchanan were bound with rags and their mouths duct-taped before they were brutally assaulted, the police have made a breakthrough.

The siblings were bound, gagged, beaten, had their teeth pulled, and darts were thrown at Smith while Buchanan was stripped naked. Their four dogs had apparently tried to protect them, and two were killed and the other two were kicked.

And when their torturers had had enough, the 44-year-old man and his sister, 46, were both shot in the head.

When the crime was discovered, police found that their cellphones were smashed, a TV was missing and the safe was broken open.

For the past five years, no arrests were made.

And the motive for the attack was unknown.

However, just when the families of the victims – both Smith and Buchanan had been married and were survived by children – were to give up on the killers ever being found, police made a breakthrough.

Two men were due to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday in connection with the murder in the upmarket suburb of Northcliff on March 14, 2008.

Unconfirmed information is that one of the men was arrested in Durban while a second was nabbed in Mbombela.

Provincial spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini wouldn’t confirm where the arrests had taken place, but confirmed that two men had been taken into custody and that the arrests had happened two weeks ago.

By Obakeng Maje

Rustenburg-The retrenchement issue that looms at Amplants and Lonmin has been brushed aside for now. This decision was taken after talks between a National Unions of Miners(NUM) and the Amplants management.

According to NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka,the talks are at advance stage.

“Up to so far we are engaged in talks with the mines management regarding retrenchement issue” Lesiba Seshoka told sabc radio.

“The management promised us that their decision of retrenching 14 000 00 mineworkers will be reviewed” Seshoka said.

The Lonmin and Amplats announced two weeks ago that they will retrench 14 000 00 mineworkers. This never settled well with ruling party and other political parties alike where the government threatens to disarm the platinum mine owners their licencing rights.

“We have put a proposal on Anglo Platinum management’s table to come up with a solution reagarding the issue” Lesiba Seshoka said.

“We want to alleviate poverty,job losses. So,we still waiting for their respond” He concluded.

Brits – Three men accused of murdering former world heavyweight boxing champion Corrie Sanders appeared in the Brits Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.

Samuel Mabena, 27, Chris Moyo, 25, and Paida Fish, 19, faced charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, said Sergeant Philani Nkwelase.

The case against the three Zimbabweans was postponed until March 15, he said. They would remain in custody.

They allegedly shot and wounded Sanders during a robbery at the Thatch Haven Country Lodge outside Brits, during an armed robbery on September 22, 2012. He died later in hospital.

The police arrested them five days later in Oukasie informal settlement, near Brits, after a tip-off.

Police also recovered a cellphone, car keys, a purse and cash believed to have been stolen during the robbery.

A handbag, also thought to have been stolen in the robbery, was recovered at a second address.

Sanders won the World Boxing Organisation’s heavyweight title in March 2003 by dropping Ukrainian Wladimir Klitsckho in the second round in Hanover, Germany. He retired five years later. – Sapa

By Staff Reporter

Premier Modise welcomes no bail for motorist who ran over pupil 

  North West Premier Thandi Modise has welcomed that a man who allegedly knocked down and killed a pupil while driving a security company vehicle in Mahikeng was denied bail.

In conveying condolences to the family of the girl who was ran over by the vehicle driven by 33- year-old Kabelo Mathikga, Premier Modise condemned irresponsible driver behaviour which accounts for most accidents and deaths on public roads .

 “The upsurge in road accidents and road deaths have reached unacceptable proportions and call for intensified traffic law enforcement and united action to support the decade of action for road safety campaign” stressed Modise. 

  According to police, Mathikga was arrested on Saturday following the accident that occurred near Montshiwa post office after he allegedly ran over a girl while trying to overtake another cat at a three-way junction on Friday afternoon. He appeared briefly in the Mmabatho Magistrates Court on Monday.

 The pupil who was declared dead at the scene was reportedly trying to cross the road near the post office on her way from school.

Mathikga was later attacked and his vehicle damaged by community members and other pupils who witnessed the accident.

Police came to his rescue after they were alerted to the incident by other residents.

The man will be back in court on 3 May to answer to charges of culpable homicide and drunken driving.

By Obakeng Maje

Bafana Bafana returned to serious training on Tuesday after being given a day off on Monday with the good news that striker Lehlohonolo Majoro is fit to return for the quarter-final match against Mali on Saturday. The match is scheduled for a sold out Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Majoro sustained a shin injury in South Africa’s 2-0 win over Angola and will train alone until Thursday.

Bad news however, is that defender Anele Ngcongca, who has featured in all three Bafana Bafana matches in the tournament, has been suspended for the Mali clash after receiving two yellow cards in the group stages.

“Everything happens for a reason. Anele is not available for our next match, Gaxa has been working hard at training and now his opportunity has arrived.  Maybe he is the right player for this match; even if Anele was available I think I would have used Gaxa. I think things were meant to happen this way,” said Bafana Bafana head coach Gordon Igesund.

“We are two games away from the final, the players understand where we are and we all know there is a huge challenge that lies ahead of us. We know what we have to do. When you get this far in any competition, you are self motivated but at the same time it gets tougher. Mali is a very talented team with very hard working players,” added Igesund.

“They play differently to most teams we have faced; they like to slow things down. They knock the ball around and are very comfortable on the ball, but then again there are no easy games in the quarter-finals.”

The head coach said he was happy his players were starting to warm up to the occasion after a slow start to the tournament.

“To be honest, we were under huge pressure, it would have been an absolute tragedy had we not qualified for the last eight. So the pressure is off as far as that issue is concerned.

“The expectations were so high because we hadn’t performed well in our friendly matches. But when you analyse those matches you will realise they were very tough and they are helping us now – Brazil, Poland, Kenya all away from home Zambia, Mozambique, Norway, Algeria – they have prepared us well for this tournament,” concluded the head coach