No image available
/ 3 December 2007
About 190 nations met in Bali on Monday seeking a breakthrough to a new global pact to fight climate change by 2009 to avert droughts, heatwaves and rising seas that will hit the poor hardest. A new treaty is meant to widen the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 36 industrial countries to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 5% below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
President Vladimir Putin appeared to be heading for a landslide victory in Russia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday night amid widespread reports that millions of citizens were coerced into voting for his party, United Russia. Early results from the Central Election Commission indicated the party was leading with 63% of votes.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
South African Airways (SAA) apologised to a passenger after she broke a leg when her flight from Washington hit a patch of turbulence, a media report said on Monday. Ronel Stevens was asleep, stretched out over two seats, when the aircraft hit an air pocket.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
A significant amount of resources has been channelled into Africa since the Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2001. Between 2000 and 2005 an estimated $97-billion has reached the continent through official development assistance. African governments themselves have set aside various percentages of their budgets for expenditure in priority sectors to effect positive change in the lives of the poor.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
It is hard not to resort to clichés when writing about Mauritius: white, sandy beaches, sunny blue skies and swaying palm trees. This Indian Ocean island paradise is the stuff travel brochures are made of. Stepping off a plane filled with eager tourists and a group of honeymooners proudly flashing "just married" T-shirts, it is easy to see how tourism has become the main source of income.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
Eskom’s residential customers might soon be charged according to the time of day, if a new electricity tariff is implemented. The new tariff will make electricity more expensive from 7am to 10am and from 6pm to 8pm and cheaper outside these periods. Time-of-use tariffs encourage customers to switch consumption to off-peak periods and reduce demand at peak times, reducing the likelihood of a power outage.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
As tens of thousands more frightened and exhausted people fled the terrors of Mogadishu last week, a Somali community leader condemned the international community "for watching the cruelty in Somalia like a film and not bothering to help". He was mistaken. The international community has barely been watching the cruelty in Somalia at all.
No image available
/ 3 December 2007
George Bush told the Annapolis summit this week that a battle was under way for the future of the Middle East as events on the ground underlined the huge task ahead as Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were relaunched after seven years. Iran, on cue, announced that it had developed a new long-range missile, while thousands of supporters of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas, protested in Gaza.
No image available
/ 2 December 2007
![]()
In SACP and Cosatu parlance we are now on the verge of dislodging the 1996 class project represented by Thabo Mbeki. Or are we? This is an opportune time for the left to confront some hard questions — and they should start with interrogating the allegedly progressive, democratic and transformative policy credentials of a Jacob Zuma-led ANC.
No image available
/ 2 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>To say that the ANC Women’s League’s choice of presidential candidate leaves much to be desired would be a significant understatement. When the country’s most powerful women’s collective decides to back a man who has expressed some of the most irresponsible and retrograde views on women and sexuality, the rest of South Africa needs to ask some Âdifficult questions, writes Pumla Dineo Gqola.