Randstad sees rise in H2 turnover: Temporary employment agency Randstad NV said on Friday it expected sales to continue to exceed market growth in the second half of 1998, but growth would slowdown slightly. It said it expected net profit to keep in line with the turnover growth. "The board of Randstad Holding expects for the second half of the year strong market growth to continue, which however will slow down in speed," the company said in a statement. "Thanks to the strong market position of the Randstad companies, turnover growth will again exceed market growth," it said.

RFM okays 750m peso capital increase: Food conglomerate RFM Corporation said its board of directors approved a 750- million peso increase in its capital stock to 5.0 billion pesos, with the new shares to be sold in a rights offering. The capital increase will pave the way for the entry of strategic foreign partner in the firm, an official of RFM told Reuters. "This is being made for the possible entry of a long-term financial investor in RFM, hopefully this year," the official said. The company has not yet indicated a price for its rights offering consisting of 350 million new common shares, the official said. "It depends on the interest of investors and sentiment of the market," he said. RFM will call a special shareholders meeting on September 16 to get approval for the capital increase and rights offering.

G-8 members invited for Nam summit: United States and other members of the Group of Eight (G-8) have been invited to attend the 12th Non-Aligned Movement (Nam) summit in Durban to hear for themselves the position of developing nations on global issues. The presence of representatives from G-8 countries would ensure that "the message gets across," director-general of the South African foreign affairs department, Jackie Selebi, said while briefing news persons on the summit. "It would be better to have them here to hear to what we (developing nations) have to say," he said. The issue of invitation to G-8 members for the summit had attracted controversy as Cuba had objected to the proposal to admit the United States as a guest state of Nam, which currently has 27 guest states.

Russia PM, Duma find consensus: Russian acting prime minister Vikto Chernomyrdin reached a consensus on political strategy with leaders of the opposition-dominated parliament today, a spokesman for the communist lower house speaker said. Giving no details of that consensus, Mikhail Belyat told reporters that president Boris Yeltsin's chief-of-staff Valentin Yumashev also agreed with the broad strategy discussed at an all-party meeting in the state Duma lower house.

Malaysia's amnesty to illegal immigrants: Some 300,000 illegal immigrants were granted two months amnesty under a programme launched in conjunction with Malaysia's 41st National Day on Monday, the Star reported. Malaysian deputy home minister Tajol Rosli Ghazali said prime minister Mahathir Mohamad agreed to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants to return to their home countries legally.