Lauren Shantall It’s a blustery Friday evening in Cape Town and I’m still waiting to catch one of the city’s signature Golden Arrow buses. When it finally careers round the corner of Bree Street, its rambunctious horde of singing, laughing passengers yell the driver to a stop. Our public transport system is in chaos – […]
THE former Rwandan army major freed by a United Nations court on charges of murdering 10 Belgian peacekeepers during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide remained in custody on Friday as Belgium and Rwanda sought his re-arrest. The UN tribunal freed Bernard Ntuyahaga on Thursday when the prosecution dropped charges against him but Belgium wants him for trial […]
Andrew Worsdale picks his Oscar winners – and those the academy is likely to choose The race for the golden statuette is very interesting this year: more independently financed films than ever before and a foreign film nominated both as best picture and best foreign film – one of only three times. Roberto Benigni’s Life […]
A FOUR-DAY Durban conference on Malaria, which ended on Thursday, has concluded that the best technology for dealing with the disease is an insecticide soaked mosquito net. The malaria parasite has developed strains resistant to established drugs like Chloroquine and a vaccine may be decades away. In Tanzania, where 42-million nets have been distributed, there […]
SEVENTY people drowned this week after their boat sank in a raging storm off the southern coast of Sierra Leone, a national boating association said on Friday. Two men and one woman survived the ordeal, an association official said. The passengers were mainly traders transporting essential commodities to Bo and Kenema, two towns in war-torn […]
Ann Eveleth Human rights education will receive a multilingual boost this week with the launch of the Know Your Rights comic book for schoolchildren in all 11 official languages – just in time for Human Rights Day celebrations on Monday. The Rapid Phase Group, makers of the Madame & Eve cartoon and writers of the […]
John Campbell The idea that each individual owns and controls his or her property lies at the very foundation of most (perhaps, all) societies. However useful the concept is at an ideological level, it is a notion that is increasingly less appropriate to describe property rights as the 20th century advances into the 21st. One […]
AT least 40 people were killed and 70 were wounded in a battle early on Friday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, between militiamen of warlord Musa Sudi Yalahow and gunmen loyal to Mogadishu Governor Hussein Ali Ahmed. The fighting has been between Yalahow’s Da’ud militiamen, supporting the governor — all belonging to the larger Abgal […]
Ivor Powell Faced with recent opinion polls which suggest it could lose its KwaZulu-Natal heartland to the African National Congress in the June elections, the Inkatha Freedom Party is pursuing a double strategy. On one hand, its election manifesto makes it clear the IFP is looking to promote itself as a national party – rather […]
Mail & Guardian reporter The future of the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) occult-related crime unit hangs in the balance. Its supporters say senior police officers at national headquarters are blocking attempts by the unit to investigate satanic-related crimes and want to disband it. This is despite mounting concerns that there will be an increase […]