Pakistan youth favour Sharia over democracy; South Africa business confidence at 13-year low; Samoa Air's pay-by-weight pricing; The mobile phone is 40

1 Pakistan youth favour Sharia over democracy (Annabel Symington in The Wall Street Journal) More young people in Pakistan believe in military rule and Islamic Sharia law than in democracy, according to the findings of a new survey released by the British Council. The nationally representative survey polled 5,271 people between the ages of 18 and 29 from across Pakistan. The results of the survey suggest that the political parties have a hard battle ahead of them if they want to restore hope to Pakistan’s disillusioned, disenfranchised and fairly conservative youth.

“I am a bit surprised by the results that indicate that the young populations have a preference for Shariah law,” says Rasul Bakhash Rais, a professor of political science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, who was part of the research team for the very. “But I am not surprised by the disgust in the government or the general conservative attitude of the youth,” he added.

Pakistan’s youth are likely to play a pivotal role in the upcoming election. Next month, 13 million first-time voters will head to the polls and 25 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 29 years of age. When the British Council first set out to survey Pakistan’s youth in 2007, just over half of respondents thought the country was heading in the wrong direction. Today that figure stands at 86%.

2 South Africa business confidence at 13-year low (Mariam Isa in Johannesburg Times) Business confidence plunged to a 13-year low in March, despite the fact that the economy is officially in an upswing, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) said. Its business confidence index (BCI) fell to 90.4 from 93 in February, largely due to a deterioration of factors that reflected the financial environment. That was its lowest level since April 2000, when the BCI measured 89.1.

A separate survey from the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) showed business confidence improved in the first quarter of this year, but not strongly enough to suggest the start of an upward trend. "Economic growth looks set to again disappoint this year as the economy struggles to exceed last year’s 2.5% real expansion," it added.

The decline in the Sacci index was broad-based with component indices on inflation, the rand’s exchange rate, share prices, precious metal prices and private-sector borrowing all negative. The indices for retail sales, vehicle sales and imports were also negative.

3 Samoa Air’s pay-by-weight pricing (The Sowetan) Samoa Air will start pricing its first international flights based on the weight of its passengers and their bags. Depending on the flight, each kilogram (2.2 pounds) costs 93 cents to $1.06. That means the average American man weighing 195 pounds with a 35-pound bag would pay $97 to go one-way between Apia, Samoa, and Pago Pago, American Samoa. Competitors typically charge $130 to $140 roundtrip for similar routes.

The weight-based pricing is not new to the airline, which launched in June. It has been using the pricing model since November, but in January the US Department of Transportation approved its international route between American Samoa and Samoa. The airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, said "planes are run by weight and not by seat, and travelers should be educated on this important issue. The plane can only carry a certain amount of weight and that weight needs to be paid. There is no other way."

The new pricing system would make Samoa Air the first to charge strictly by weight, a change that Vaeafe said is, "in many ways... a fair concept for passengers. For example, a 12- or 13-year-old passenger, who is small in size and weight, won't have to pay an adult fare, based on airline fares that anyone 12 years and older does pay the adult fare," he said.

Islands in the Pacific have the highest rates of obesity in the world. According to a 2011 report by the World Health Organization, 86% of Samoans are overweight, the fourth worst among all nations. Only Samoa's Pacific neighbors Nauru, the Cook Islands and Tonga rank worse. In comparison, the same study found that 69% of Americans are overweight, 61% of Australians, and 22% of Japanese. Samoa ranked just as poorly in statistics measuring those who are obese, or severely overweight.

4 The mobile phone is 40 (BBC) The first mobile phone call was made 40 years ago, on 3 April 1973. Martin Cooper, a senior engineer at Motorola, called a rival colleague at another telecoms company and announced he was speaking from "a 'real' cellular telephone". In 2012 a report carried out by the International Telecommunication Union found that there were six billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide. At the time the global population was seven billion.

"In 40 years we've moved rapidly from the mobile phone as a businessman's tool, through consumerisation and internet access to everything being connected," Dr Mike Short CBE, former president of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and Vice President of Telefonica Europe, told the BBC.

"In the future we will see a much wider range of devices - many of which will be wearable. Wearables, in terms of (smartphone) watches, are coming. We'll also see health measurement body vests that can communicate with your phone and then your doctor," said Dr Short.

Martin Cooper, now aged 85, is renowned as the "father" of the mobile phone. In a previous interview he admitted he thought the initial cost of the devices (in 1983 the first models cost $3,500) might be prohibitive to the mobile phone becoming a mass-market product, but he did recognise that the hefty handsets would probably shrink.