A strong link between droughts and violent civil conflicts in the developing world bodes ill for an increasingly thirsty world, say scientists, who warn that drought-related conflicts are expected to multiply with advancing climate change. "Severe, prolonged droughts are the strongest indicator of high-intensity conflicts," said Marc Levy of the Centre for International Earth Science Information Network .
It is easy to think the worst of Americans. Perhaps you have just read that they are indulging a new trend — that of separate sleeping quarters for married people. Aha! you think. They are craven, status-driven warthogs, who simply wish to flaunt their wealth by the incredible amount of space they can take up because their houses are so huge. Or maybe it is the snoring.
Zimbabwean government officials allegedly made payments of Z$1,1-million (R100), or the equivalent of a month’s salary, to each of the policemen who assaulted Morgan Tsvangirai, Lovemore Madhuku and other opposition supporters at a meeting in Harare last week.
Across the world, experience has shown that film can only survive with state support. A raft of public sector initiatives to increase the volumes and quality of South African film, television programming and audio-visual material created for new media is on the cards.
An email addressed to Al Gore appeared in my inbox. It is from a number of pro-green biofuel campaigners. Given Gore’s new status as a do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do environmentalist, you could expect that the mail was to ask him to practise what he preaches, cut back on his personal jet travel, install low-wattage lighting at home, that sort of thing.
Ronnie Kasrils, the Minister of Intelligence, requested an opinion from the South African Human Rights Commission as to whether statements that he had made amounted to hate speech as defined in the Constitution. His comments were characterised as hate speech by Helen Suzman and by the South African Jewish Report.
When last did you hear a good-news story coming out of Darfur? For that matter, have you ever heard a good-news story from there? Well, I’ve got one. In the South Darfur city of Nyala, there is a small group of Sudanese men and women who risks life and limb each day to deliver humanitarian information over the radio to the millions of displaced persons in the region.
Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died in hospital on March 18 after being found unconscious in his hotel room, the team announced. Woolmer (58), a former England Test batsman and coach of South Africa, had seen his team crash out of the World Cup on March 17 after a shock group-D defeat by Ireland at Sabina Park.
Bloemfontein Celtic produced the great escape of the Premier Soccer League season when they qualified for the Absa Cup quarterfinals on Sunday via a 3-2 penalty shoot-out advantage over Orlando Pirates. Also qualifying for the quarterfinals were Santos and Mvela Golden League’s Dynamos.
The Johannesburg Metropolitan Bus Service Company has offered a R50 000 reward for information that will help track down those responsible for the killings of and attacks on bus drivers, said its chairperson, Vincent Mntambo, on Sunday.