Zimbabwe’s elections must be free and fair next year and economic recovery in the troubled country will only be achieved by a government viewed as legitimate by all its citizens, South Africa’s president said on Sunday. Thabo Mbeki heads the regional mediation process between Zimbabwe’s government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was expected to walk a fine line in talks on Monday with President George Bush, keeping some distance on issues like Iraq while preserving the ”special relationship” with the United States. The Camp David meeting is the first between the new British prime minister and Bush since Brown succeeded Tony Blair last month.
Hosts Botswana upset Angola to win Sunday’s Cosafa Castle Cup Group C final with a 3-1 victory on penalties following a goalless draw after 90 minutes. Goalkeeper Modiri Marumo was the hero in the shoot-out as his saves denied Angola, who played in the 2006 World Cup finals.
In the bowels of Iran’s uranium conversion facility in Isfahan strands of black and red wire stretch from the concrete wall to giant white tanks full of a volatile uranium compound. It is by these slender cords that the international community hopes to hold Iran’s atomic ambitions in check.
The Gauteng provincial housing department has pledged R85-million towards the development of four hostels in the province. Provincial housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane held talks with African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party supporters who lived in hostels where a number of protests took place earlier this month.
It is a party trick well known to curious teenagers across the United States. Zoom down on Washington via Google Earth and you get an extraordinary eagle-eyed view of the world’s greatest powerhouse. There’s the White House and its West Wing. Sweeping south-east across the Potomac you soar above the Pentagon. But there is one thing you can’t do.
In a classic American western, there are good guys and bad guys. The good ones are the settlers, who are making the prairie bloom; the bad ones are the Indians, who are blood-thirsty savages. The hero is the cowboy — with a big revolver or two, ready to defend himself at all times.
"A wise and courageous decision," the then- vice-president FW de Klerk called it when we met in Amsterdam in 1995. These few encouraging words dispelled all our doubts about moving to South Africa. In April 1996, with my wife Patricia and son Ludo, we left Holland behind.
Using renewable energy can be expensive, but households can start managing their energy requirements by considering both the demand and supply side of the equation. They can diversify through using renewable sources and the most energy-efficient options. The house becomes the power plant and the shortfall is sourced from the grid.
Hanno Renn, a Freiburg taxi driver, invested in a communal solar electricity system on a building in the German town in 1993. "Everyone laughed and said I was wasting my money," he says. But now he has paid off his investment and earns a regular income from the electrical company for the power he generates. "I have had the last laugh," he grins.