The United Nations launched an emergency response fund on Thursday for natural and man-made disasters to try to establish a permanent pool of -million that can be quickly channelled to emergencies as they happen. Britain has taken a lead in the initiative by providing -million.
Israel’s acting Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has said the country will draw its final borders within four years without consulting the Palestinians if Hamas does not recognise the Jewish state. Olmert, said that by 2010 he intended to ”get to Israel’s permanent borders, whereby we will completely separate from the majority of the Palestinian population and preserve a large and stable Jewish majority in Israel”.
Nine wanted criminals were among 150 people arrested in a police operation in nightclubs and taverns in Johannesburg’s Hillbrow district on Thursday night, police said. Spokesperson Inspector Kriban Naidoo said the nine were wanted for crimes such as robbery, fraud and forgery.
About 2 000 people have lost their homes in floods that have hit central Malawi after storms in the south, a government official said on Thursday. The latest flooding came just a few days after heavy rains in the south left 6 000 homeless, destroyed crops and washed away bridges and roads.
Women who are raped by someone they know are less likely to report and successfully convict their offenders, according to legal experts. This was despite the fact that the law does not distinguish between acquaintance and stranger rape. With stranger rape, if there is good identification, it can be fairly clear-cut,” said Lisa Vetten of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
The head of the open-source software translation project <i>Translate.org.za</i>, Dwane Bailey, this week called on civil society to help localise software and push proprietary firms to do likewise. He was speaking at the Sangonet ICTs for Civil Society conference in Johannesburg.
South Africa’s third-largest gold miner, Harmony Gold, on Friday announced that it has acquired 44,99-million shares in Western Areas, representing a 29,2% stake in the company. The acquisition was made up by acquiring 37,37-million shares from fund manager Allan Gray and 7,62-million shares on the open market.
A revolutionary restructuring of football is being touted, which could see ”a government representative and a well-respected businessman” being appointed to a new body that would run the affairs of the country’s national teams, the head of the South African Football Association’s technical committee, Sturu Pasiya, told the Mail & Guardian this week.
With 2006 just a week old, we had seen the future and it looked horrible. Graeme Smith had finally completed his devolution from batsman to blabbermouth. Mickey Arthur seemed hell-bent on expressing himself through tactics he was gleaning from Biggles novels (”Drop that gun, Von Schtalhein! You know only one of us can bat at five to the over and walk out of this submarine pen alive and it isn’t you!”).
There was good news for rich people on Thursday, when an annual listing of the world’s billionaires showed there were more of them than ever. The 793 billionaires making the 2006 list published by Forbes magazine is an increase of 102 on last year. And the rich keep getting richer, with their total net worth up 18%.