A post template

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Dinnertime tale lands Fox pundit in race row

One of Rupert Murdoch’s leading pundits on the Fox News television channel, Bill O’Reilly, has become embroiled in the latest public row over the depiction of black people in the mainstream media. O’Reilly has been accused of ”velvet racism” for comments on his radio show about the famous Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Burmese take desperate measures to survive

People in Burma were already living on the edge before the government doubled fuel prices, raising the cost of just about everything and shoving many over the precipice. The sudden announcement of fuel price hikes on August 15 became the tipping point of a crisis that had been building for a long time.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Junta raids Burma monasteries

Burma’s generals launched pre-dawn raids on rebellious monasteries on Thursday in their crackdown on the biggest anti-junta protests in 20 years, defying desperate international calls for restraint. It was unusually quiet on the streets of Yangon, where troops killed an estimated 3 000 people in the ruthless suppression of a 1988 uprising.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Experts track terrorism funds to West Africa

Militants are exploiting weak law enforcement in West Africa to raise funds from rackets ranging from people smuggling to drug trafficking and even fake Viagra, experts said. In the past two years, South American cartels have switched their trafficking routes into Europe to funnel drugs via lawless swathes of war-scarred West Africa.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Merafe joins Xstrata chrome project

South Africa’s Merafe Resources said on Thursday it had agreed to take a stake in a plant producing chrome pellets with partner Xstrata Plc and issued 40-million shares to help pay for it. Merafe, which already has a chrome joint venture with Xstrata, said it would have a 20,5% stake in the Bokamoso plant.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Mbeki speaks out on Pikoli suspension

President Thabo Mbeki has responded for the first time on his decision to suspend the National Director of Public Prosecutions, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday. Mbeki was speaking to the broadcaster on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Mozambique throws weight behind Mugabe

Mozambique will not attend the forthcoming European Union-African Union summit if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is excluded, Radio Mozambique reported on Wednesday. Mugabe is barred from travelling to most European countries in terms of sanctions imposed on the Southern African country.

No image available
/ 27 September 2007

Marriage made in hell

When the Scorpions were up for grabs at Judge Sisi Khampepe’s commission in October 2005, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Vusi Pikoli said “I do” — and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla retorted “I don’t”. This week’s formal divorce of the two was long in the making.