DRAMA OF THE WEEK: Shaun de Waal reviews Nick Cassavetes’s film, <i>Alpha Dog</i>.
All sides in the conflict in Darfur are ready to start talks to renegotiate a year-old peace accord rejected by many Darfuris as inadequate, the top United Nations humanitarian chief in Sudan said on Friday. In his last interview before leaving his post after three years, Manuel Aranda da Silva said a descent into anarchy in Darfur is hindering the world’s largest aid operation.
Businessman Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday that he was not a candidate for African National Congress president as nominations were not yet open, but he had been approached to stand. ”Lobbying is taking place but the candidates have not yet been identified,” said Sexwale.
Gunmen attacked the home of a police chief north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 14 people including his wife and brothers, and kidnapping his four children, police sources said. South of the capital, a minibus packed with weapons and exlosives blew up at a bus terminal in a market in the town of Qurna.
World leaders agreed on Friday a -billion pledge to fight HIV/Aids and other killer diseases ravaging Africa. ”The issue is now fixed. The text is agreed,” a diplomat from a Group of Eight (G8) member country told Reuters on the final day of a summit of the club of industrialised nations.
South Africa needs to spend billions of rands to ease a nationwide housing crunch, its housing minister said on Friday, highlighting a glaring legacy of decades of apartheid. Lindiwe Sisulu told Parliament during her annual budget speech that the country had made progress in easing a huge backlog in requests for housing.
South African central bank Governor Tito Mboweni warned on Friday of a strong upward bias in inflation beyond high fuel and food costs, pointing to further interest rate increases. The Reserve Bank raised its key repo rate by 50 basis points to 9,5% on Thursday to help stem surging inflation and high consumer spending.
Unbeaten knockout artist and Olympian Khotso Motau is destined to be one of the greatest middleweights in the world. At least that is what the media frenzy would have us believe, comparing the South African welterweight champion with world greats.
Controversy, never a stranger to the career of Michelle Wie, turned into downright calamity this week amid suggestions that the game’s most famous prodigy feigned an injury during an LPGA Tour event to avoid falling victim to the rule under which players who shoot a round of 88 or worse are banned from the women’s tour for the rest of the season.
At Headingley last week, the West Indies were running out of batsmen: Shivnarine Chanderpaul had withdrawn with tendinitis, and their captain, Ramnaresh Sarwan, had just damaged his shoulder diving over the rope while trying to save a boundary.