The United Kingdom would continue to encourage investors to take advantage of the opportunities offered by black economic empowerment, a ministerial delegation led by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday. In a joint communiqué at end of the sixth meeting of the South Africa United Kingdom Bilateral Forum, the two countries welcomed the continuing increase in trade.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said on Thursday a nationwide strike, against the SA Post Office Service and Telkom’s plans to retrench workers, has been temporarily suspended. The announcement came after discussions between the CWU national working committee and legal advisors of the union, CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe said in Johannesburg.
The rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government agreed on Thursday night to a peace deal to end more than three weeks of fighting in Najaf, as a peace initiative by returning Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani quickly bore fruit. Under Sistani’s plan, designed to end the chaotic stand-off in Iraq’s holy city, al-Sadr would withdraw his fighters from the Imam Ali shrine on Friday morning.
Sea of Shi’ites forces open Najaf shrine
The Kremlin is facing growing public anger at its refusal to recognise Tuesday night’s double airline crash as an act of terrorism. Officials continued to suggest on Thursday that it would take another two days for the investigation to draw any definitive conclusions.
In a dramatic reversal of its previous position, the White House this week conceded that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases were the only likely explanation for global warming. Two years ago, when his administration last published a document claiming that global warming over the last few decades had been prompted by human behaviour, United States President George Bush dismissed it as something ”put out by the bureaucracy”.
Tired of being remarkable just for their wealth, Russia’s super rich want to buy aristocratic class — and a development on the outskirts of St Petersburg offers just that. There the elite of the country’s cultural capital can buy houses built to resemble famous palaces, such as Versailles in France and St Petersburg’s own Peterhof.
The critical gaze of the international community is as much on South Africa as it is on Equatorial Guinea as the trial of 18 men charged with plotting a coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema plays out. Any legal travesty in the oil-rich African state will reflect badly on South Africa as it does on the man who came to power in 1979 by killing his uncle.
A small aviation company based in the Free State town of Bethlehem has emerged as central to the arrest of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark. Mark Thatcher was arrested on Wednesday by the Scorpions for allegedly aiding the plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinean government.
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A tribute to a mother’s influence, Kate Turkington’s <i>Doing it with Doris</i> is a collection of tales about the journeys, adventures and encounters inspired by inspired by her mother’s philosophy of "make it happen". Shirley Kossick takes an armchair trip.
"A film like this, bizarrely, hasn’t been made before," Roodt says. Come to think of it, he’s right. Despite the pandemic in South Africa, can you recall ever seeing a full-length film featuring an HIV-positive protagonist? Nicole Temkin chats to director Darryl Roodt about <i>Yesterday</i>.