The Nigerian government is suing the world’s largest drug manufacturer, Pfizer, for £3,5-billion in damages for allegedly carrying out illegal trials of an anti-meningitis drug that killed and disabled children. The children died or suffered serious side effects when the antibiotic, Trovan, was administered in Kano during a meningitis outbreak in 1996.
Once, you might have been stuck for the word to describe an unsightly tummy bulge protruding over low-rise jeans. But “muffin top” is one of hundreds of new words and phrases, along with “wag”, “size zero” and “hoodie”, that have entered the language and are listed in the Collins English Dictionary‘s 9th edition, published recently.
Private hospitals have hit back at charges that their price increases are excessive in a new report that shows that private hospital inflation in South Africa is in line with that of developed countries. The report shows that private hospital inflation of 5,6% for last year was lower than the overall medical inflation rate of 6,1%.
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang looks frail and unrecognisably thin, but, on the evidence of her budget vote speech in Parliament on Thursday, she is as combative as ever, with targets ranging from private hospitals to medical researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and the national treasury, writes Nic Dawes.
Trade union federation Cosatu believes the “Special Browse Mole Consolidated Report”, implicating Jacob Zuma in a plot to overthrow President Thabo Mbeki, was engineered by National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (Scorpions) operatives as part of a conspiracy to stymie Zuma’s presidential ambitions.
About 120 hand-picked learners in KwaZulu-Natal have participated in a pilot human rights workshop run by an organisation with direct links to the controversial Church of Scientology — with the backing of the provincial government. A proposal to have the programme rolled out to the rest of KwaZulu-Natal’s children is awaiting approval from the provincial legislature and the office of Premier Sbu Ndebele.
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Hundreds of people crowded into the Great Hall at Wits University in Johannesburg on Thursday evening to hear businessman Tokyo Sexwale talk about leadership. His address is part of the Wits public lecture series and is billed as ”Towards a common future: Public conversations on leadership with Tokyo Sexwale”.
South Africa’s controversial health minister returned to the spotlight on Thursday after snubbing a major Aids conference, announcing a ”significant” decrease in the number of pregnant women infected with HIV. ”This is mainly as a result of our continued focus on prevention as the mainstay of our response to combat HIV,” Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told Parliament.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s idea of using a radar station in Azerbaijan to develop a missile shield would remove the need for a United States radar in central Europe, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Thursday. At a meeting with US President George Bush during a Group of Eight summit, Putin suggested the US and Russia jointly use a radar in Azerbaijan.