No image available
/ 12 January 2007
United States President George Bush faced increasing isolation on Thursday night after his much-vaunted new strategy for Iraq met with overwhelming public and political opposition. Bush and his most senior staff embarked on a huge public relations exercise to sell the plan to send an extra 20 000 troops to Iraq, aware of formidable opposition in Congress
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
Amsterdam has launched a crackdown on "crime" kingpins in the city’s red-light district, which threatens to leave hundreds of sex workers out of a job, and has solicited help from a slightly bemused sector — Dutch banks. The city authorities have no quarrel with prostitution, which was legalised in 2001 in this country that has historically prided itself on tolerance.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
Gordon Brown significantly enhanced his position as Britain’s prime-minister-in-waiting in a wide-ranging TV interview in which he promised to change the style of government and set the agenda for Britain’s relationship with the United States. Brown, currently Finance Minister, was interviewed on BBC TV’s <i>AM</i> programme.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
The principal aim of the United States air strikes in southern Somalia appears to have been the elimination of three al-Qaeda suspects held responsible for the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The limited US operation was not part of the larger, Ethiopian-led military effort to topple the country’s Islamist movement and rescue Somalia’s pro-Western government — and runs the risk of undermining it.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
Somali warlords, armed robbers and bandits are again visible in Mogadishu’s streets after six months of relative stability during the period when the city was under the control of the Union of Islamic Courts. No one knows yet whether the weak Somali government will be able to restore peace and stability to Mogadishu.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
The European Commission this week stepped up the European Union’s campaign to lead the fight against climate change by warning that global warming was so catastrophic that it could trigger regional conflicts, poverty, famine and migration. Setting out a strategy to combat global warming and improve Europe’s energy security at the same time, it said the secondary effects of climate change would inevitably affect even a less vulnerable Europe.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
The Democratic Alliance’s Eastern Cape leader, Athol Trollip, has entered the lists as the first formal contender for Tony Leon’s crown. And at a media conference in Cape Town recently to announce his candidacy, Trollip was careful to steer a course between the party’s liberal and conservative wings.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
On a day of two inaugurations separated by 2 100km, a late flight and an ideological time warp, it was apt for one of the new presidents to quote Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, was sworn in for a third consecutive term at a ceremony on Wednesday morning in the capital, Caracas, and several hours later, in Managua, Daniel Ortega was sworn in as President of Nicaragua.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
The Mail & Guardian‘s Stephanie Wolters speaks to Richard Cornwell, senior research fellow of the African Security Analysis Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, about the evolving crisis in Somalia.
No image available
/ 12 January 2007
The former United States president Jimmy Carter was facing a revolt from some of his own supporters on Thursday after 14 members of the advisory board of his human rights organisation resigned in protest at his view on Israel and the Palestinians.