Stephen Gray MACBRIDE’S BRIGADE: IRISH COMMANDOS IN THE ANGLO-BOER WAR by Donal P McCracken (Four Courts Press, Dublin) Under the Brixton Sentech tower there is a curious monument in memory of those who lost their lives fighting for the Boer cause a century ago in the various Irish Transvaal Brigades. Opened by Betsie Verwoerd in […]
The Unemployment Insurance Bill imposes harsh penalties on defaulting employers Barry Streek The extensive revamping of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will not only extend cover to domestic workers and seasonal workers, but is also aimed at putting the fund on a sounder financial basis and giving it a more representative board of control. The […]
David Beresford ANOTHER COUNTRY A British judge, Justice Martin Stephens, found himself in hot water last week during a case in the Old Bailey when he told the court that he had difficulty distinguishing one Ethiopian witness from another. The judge was trying to be helpful at the time, advising members of the jury as […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 5.10pm STRUGGLING state-owned diamond miner Alexkor forecast on Friday that it will halt its spiral of losses this year, helped by continuing initiatives to try to cut costs ahead of its possible privatisation. Alexkor CEO Larry Neuhoff said the mine, which has made losses since 1994, expects to show […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.00pm SHARES end lower for the third day in a row, with the all share index at a three-month low as futures players jostle for positions ahead of the the March contracts close-out next Thursday. The all share index ended 19 points or 0,25% at 7925, its lowest closing level […]
ZIMBABWE’S foreign exchange market remains critically short of hard cash on Thursday, with traders only looking to tobacco earnings from April to bring some relief. Traders quoted the Zimbabwe dollar unchanged at Z$37,9 to the US unit, its trading level since June under 15-month old partial controls by banking chiefs which averted a return to […]
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‘To me the core of film-making is to stir the emotions of the audience,’ says Frank Darabont, director of tear-jerking prison movie The Green Mile. Stuart Jeffries tries not to laugh.
A BABOON which climbed on electricity lines in a rural part of the Western Cape sparked a fire which destroyed at least six farms. Police Inspector Derik Petersen said a badly burnt baboon was found hanging on the electricity wires near the farming town of Porterville. He said police believed the baboon had caused the […]
FIVE more people have been killed despite a curfew on two rival communities fighting over land in southwest Nigeria, bringing the toll to 35 in one week. Nigeria’s northern states erupted recently when Muslims and Christians clashed over the imposition of the Islamic Sharia law. The five were killed on Wednesday at Ogunsola village following […]