Al Gore has had plenty of time to develop a self-deprecating sense of humour over the past six years, and it shows. ”My name is Al Gore, and I used to be the next president of the United States,” the broad-shouldered 58-year-old tells audiences wherever he goes.
The last of 16-million tonnes of concrete will be poured in on Saturday, making Chairman Mao’s dream a reality, and giving China’s current generation of engineers-turned-leaders the chance to proclaim another colossal step forward in the country’s ”harmonious development”. But the completion of the Three Gorges dam has been anything but harmonious.
Traders on the world’s financial markets left for home on Friday night counting their losses after a week of extreme turbulence that witnessed the biggest one-day fall in share prices in London and New York for three years. Metals prices slid in further bumpy trading on Friday with copper, nickel and aluminium slipping up to 10%.
Six detainees have been injured at Guantánamo Bay in the most violent uprising since the prison began holding suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban supporters four years ago. The revolt was suppressed with ”non-lethal force”, including rubber bullets and pepper spray.
Factional tensions are sharpening in the National Union of Mineworkers in the run-up to next week’s NUM congress, which is to elect new leaders. Apart from those of president and deputy president, all positions are being contested. There is particularly fierce rivalry over the crucial post of general secretary, which Gwede Mantashe is vacating after two terms.
President Thabo Mbeki has changed his mind about Tony Leon, Parliament heard on Thursday. It was a rare moment in their decade-long battle in the National Assembly. ”I had originally thought Tony Leon was a racist to the bone; I would later discover that he is a democrat to the bone,” Mbeki told members.
Be afraid, be very afraid. Your future is unsafely in the hands of your security company. A conference in Johannesburg made it clear that South Africa is one of many countries where security is increasingly provided by private rather than public actors. And with the global, multibillion-rand sector virtually unregulated, shady elements have stepped in where states can no longer protect citizens.
Concern was expressed in Parliament on Friday about a lack of synergy between different arms of the criminal justice system. While more prosecutors were being appointed to match growing police numbers and arrests, the Legal Aid Board was not given additional money to boost its number of criminal defenders, justice portfolio committee chairperson Fatima Chohan said.
Arsene Wenger hailed Thierry Henry’s decision to stay at Arsenal as more significant for the club’s future than winning the Champions League would have been. Henry signed a new four-year deal at the north London club two days after the Gunners went down 2-1 to Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Talks on the current security guards’ strike deadlocked again on Friday after the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) refused to suspend the strike. Employers want Satawu to call off the violence-wracked strike as a precondition to negotiating, but Satawu has rejected this call.