No image available
/ 15 October 2007
Centuries of troubles have bobbed on the waves off the Mosquito Coast: Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquest, pirates, slave ships. For the fishing villages scattered across these remote central American shores there was seldom reason to welcome visits from the outside world.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
Whenever a head of state or government faces trial these days, human rights activists say the event is unprecedented. Slobodan Milosevic’s trial was "ground-breaking"; the conviction of Jean Kambanda of Rwanda was "historic"; the trial of Charles Taylor of Liberia was "a break with the past".
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
The Airports Company South Africa has spoken out about the "challenges" presented by the construction industry. In its annual report, presented to Parliament, the company complained about the construction skills shortage, long lead times for material supplies, rapidly escalating costs because of capacity constraints and a tender environment that favours contractors.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
Uganda’s top negotiator in peace talks with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has told the Institute for War and Peace Reporting that the government will ask the Hague-based International Criminal Court to drop arrest warrants against the rebels’ top commanders only after the LRA renounces its insurgency.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
When British dotcom entrepreneur Calum Brannan had his first meeting with potential investors last year, he immediately encountered a problem. My uncle had driven me down to Cambridge from Coventry for the meeting, and came to sit in on it with me," he said. "But they thought he ran the website and started talking to him instead of me."
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
A former crime journalist was shot and killed while leaving church in Woodlands on Sunday, Pietermaritzburg police said. Superintendent Henry Budhram said Elaine Anderson -– a former crime reporter for the Witness newspaper — was allegedly leaving church in her car when she was confronted by two armed men on Sunday night.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
President Thabo Mbeki has told the nation in the past that if anybody has evidence of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s involvement with organised crime figures they should bring it to him. Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said the same. People are afraid to speak out.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
International research has shown that households can save as much as 10% of their annual electricity bill by reducing their ”phantom” power or standby power consumption. But South Africa has no research examining this energy- sucking phenomenon and shows little interest in the international community’s moves to curb standby power waste.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
I recently had the opportunity of being part of two interesting discussions that have a bearing on the debate about whether faith-based organisations have the capacity to influence policy and, more generally, the religion-state relationship in South Africa. The feeling in the room was that victims of trafficking, who, as a certainty, would be sexually and physically abused, writes Cassiem Khan.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
North of Berne, in an idyllic Alpine valley, cowbells tinkle, a church steeple rises, and window boxes tumble with geraniums. It has always been like this. But down by the railway station the 21st century is rudely intruding and the villagers of Wangen are upset. ”It’s the noise, and all the cars. You should see it on a Friday night,” complains Roland Kissling, a perfume buyer for a local cosmetics company.