Grace Githuthwa heard the attackers before she saw them. They were singing war songs, running from two sides towards the church compound where she and 200 others were sheltering from outbursts of ethnic violence. She grabbed her four children and ran inside the Kenya Assemblies of God Pentecostal church.
The damning admission recently by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, Samuel Kivuitu, that re-elected President Mwai Kibaki might not have won the fiercely contested presidential election has confirmed suspicions that the process was flawed and that the announced results did not reflect Kenyans’ votes.
Anyone who visits Italy sees one sooner or later, most likely tucked into the frame of a mirror above a bar or taped to the dashboard of a taxi. But lots of devout Roman Catholic Italians carry them in their wallets and purses — little cards bearing the picture (or at least the imagined likeness) of a saint or other religious figure.
Last year saw a return to market volatility levels previously experienced in the recovery years of the 1990s’ dotcom bust. Markets are always volatile when there is uncertainty and there is much uncertainty right now — led by developments in the United States and European economies.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was in Nairobi in a bid to mediate between newly-elected President Mwai Kibaki and defeated opposition leader Raila Odinga on Thursday, said at a media conference that Odinga had accepted his mediation. Sources close to the mediation also told the Mail & Guardian that Odinga had dropped his demand that Kibaki resign before the two sit down to talk peace.
Ghana’s two largest political parties have vowed to battle it out for the December 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections. Ghana News Agency reported that the ruling New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Party (NDC) had promised a ”tough showdown” for the vote in the country’s eastern region.
A cluster of far-right groups allied under the name Stop the Islamisation of Europe holds rallies in London, Copenhagen and Marseilles to demand an end to what they call ”the overt and covert expansion of Islam in Europe”. Although the events attract only a handful of protesters, their message resonates widely.
The prominent conservation group, WWF International, predicts that we will need five planets to sustain the eco-unfriendly way middle-class people live today. The implication is that Mail & Guardian readers should try to reduce their carbon footprint. I adapted my lifestyle to South African conditions, using universally accepted “living green” principles, and drew up 15 green house rules.
As an avid football fan, the pope’s right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, knows better than most that in the end it is the result that counts. No one, though, expected Pope Benedict XVI’s new secretary of state to be quite so goal-minded as to bring Âperformance-related pay to the Vatican. But he did.
A perceived lack of credibility is the biggest challenge facing the SABC, says Kanyisiwe Mkonza, the newly appointed chairperson of the public broadcaster’s board, and she plans to tackle it head on. The past few years have been very difficult for the SABC, she says. She wants to take stock and get to the root of the problems.