ATTEMPTS by four docking craft to reach Russia’s stricken nuclear submarine failed overnight as hopes that the surviving members of the 118 crew might be saved became increasingly pinned on foreign rescuers. British and Norwegian teams were racing to reach the Kursk, which has been gradually sinking into the sandy bed of the Barents Sea […]

”HITCH-HIKING” northwards by road and sea, bad-tempered descendants of South African queen bees that were brought to Brazil nearly half a century ago have begun arriving in Canada, says apiculturist Mehat Nasr of Guelph University, near Toronto. The ”Africanized killer bees,” as they are called, invaded and colonised the south western US over the past […]

Barry Streek Although Cape Town has grown significantly faster than other metropolitan areas during the 1990s, the scale and seriousness of the challenges facing it represented “a loud wake-up call” to all its citizens and stakeholders, the local unicity commission has said. A bleak scenario for the unified Cape Town, to be formed later this […]

Station commissioner of Umbilo police station, Ian McCall, has targeted Dalton hostel as a major source of crime in the city Paul Kirk The rats scampered away with a pride of feral cats in hot pursuit as the police stormed the municipal beer hall. Adjacent to Durban’s notorious Dalton hostel, parts of the hall have […]

rights Liesl Gerntholtz There can be little doubt that women have made great strides since 1994. We have seen a large number of laws put into place to empower women and improve their status. As Nohlanhla Mjoli-Mncube says: “Gender equality is receiving more attention than in any other period in the history of South Africa. […]

Khadija Magardie The latest statistics of the United States- based Population Reference Bureau (PRB) indicate that sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest-growing population “of any major region in the world”. According to the 2000 World Population Data Sheet, the region has a population of 657- million and a total fertility rate of 5,8 children per woman. […]

weapons deal Director Keith Mokoape’s personal stake in this lucrative deal is the latest in a series of scandals surrounding South Africa’s arms procurement Ivor Powell A director of the South African defence parastatal Armscor and former head of African National Congress military intelligence is the head of a newly formed company that stands to […]

Jaspreet Kindra Deputy President Jacob Zuma has intervened to save the African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party coalition in KwaZulu- Natal, following a threat by the provincial ANC leadership to walk out. Zuma stepped in following an IFP and ANC fall-out over whether municipalties in the province should have executive mayors or management committees […]

Cedric Mayson Spirit level All our religions are imports. Christianity originated in a Jew from Galilee and Jerusalem. Numerous variations of it reached Africa after journeying through centuries of adaptation in the tortuous politics and economics of the Mediterranean, Europe, the Americas, and colonialism. Six hundred years after Jesus, Islam began in a small community […]