While it is unlikely that any of the judges in the Constitutional Court will be wearing ”Black Labour — White Guilt” T-shirts under their robes on Tuesday, the offending shirt will probably not be far from their minds, as they consider whether it really is a cut-and-dried case of trademark infringement.
Australia and East Timor were resuming talks on Monday on how to carve up billions of dollars worth of oil and gas under the seabed that divides one of the Asia-Pacific’s richest nations from one of the region’s poorest. Three days of talks were getting under way in the Australian capital, Canberra, five months after the acrimonious collapse of the last round of negotiations.
The destruction on Monday of 10 000 firearms during a gun amnesty was good, but not good enough, said Judy Bassingthwaite, director of Gunfree South Africa. ”The 10 000 guns destroyed this morning will never harm another human being. Yes it’s a success, but it’s the beginning.
In a haze of dust, wearing ear mufflers against the clang of machines, Lobano Kalimbiro smashes red rocks rich in tin ore with a metal hammer, working up a sweat in a trade that fuelled central Africa’s biggest war and may spawn another.
A 41-year-old man with erectile dysfunction cut off his penis in a southern Philippine city, hospital staff said on Monday. Ernesto Almonte was rushed by his father to a hospital late on Sunday in Zamboanga City, 875km south of Manila, after he cut off his penis.
The risk of epidemics is rising dangerously in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as more than 70 000 refugees fled to already-crowded camps over the weekend after renewed violence in the Ituri region, United Nations officials said.
A South African film celebrating a reporter’s struggle against apartheid has taken top honours at Africa’s premier film festival. Drum, by South African director Zola Maseko, picked up the Gold Talon prize for best feature-length film late on Saturday at the closing of the 19th Panafrican Film and Television Festival.
The Education Department confirmed on Monday that over 100 000 teachers who participated in a public servants’ strike last year will lose pay. ”The universal principle of no work, no pay is being applied,” said department spokesperson Tommy Makhode.
You have to love this country, writes Mike van Graan. Proudly South African flags are hoisted in the contradictory winds of the indigenous and imported, of former coloniser and colony, representing the creation of a uniquely local cultural product but with global cultural influences.
President Thabo Mbeki has invited Swaziland’s King Mswati III to visit South Africa, but it was not clear on Monday morning whether the meeting would take place, Mbeki’s office said. Mbeki’s spokesperson said he did not know if arrangements for the meeting had been finalised.