The African National Congress (ANC) has dismissed a media report on its national policy conference in Midrand last week. The report in the Sunday Times was ”wholly and deliberately fabricated”, the ANC charged in a statement released late on Sunday night.
It is already the world’s biggest country, spanning 11 time zones and stretching from Europe to the Far East. But this week Russia signalled its intention to get even bigger by announcing an audacious plan to annex a vast, 1,19-million-square-kilometre chunk of the frozen and ice-encrusted Arctic.
The European Union is failing to prioritise health and education in its plans for spending aid in poor countries, according to a new study, which also found that the EU appears to be using development aid to promote Western political and commercial interests, rather than to alleviate hardship.
With biofuels being blamed for rising food prices and offering limited environmental benefits, diverse luminaries such as former United States vice-president Al Gore and Microsoft’s Bill Gates are throwing their considerable support behind cellulosic ethanol, a second-generation biofuel.
Soccer fans might be feeling a little bewildered after the misinformation that characterised the fallout over the recently announced billion-rand Premier Soccer League (PSL) broadcasting-rights deal. But local soccer has never been healthier financially and, if anything, there will be more live soccer on free-to-air television than ever before.
The medical fraternity is up in arms over the Discovery Health Network — they call it "unethical" and an attempt by a dominant player to control their practices. Discovery says it is cutting the rate of medical inflation. This year, Discovery introduced a direct payment plan for general practitioners and specialists who sign up to their network.
While the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) shouts and stomps its feet after having lost the rights to the drawcard that is Premier Soccer League football, industry insiders accuse the public broadcaster of double standards and insist that its showing of public bravado is just sour grapes.
A mechanical monster grabs the F-14 fighter jet and chews through one wing and then another, ripping off the Tomcat’s appendages before moving on to its guts. Finally, all that is left is a pile of shredded rubble. The Pentagon is paying a contractor to destroy old F-14s rather than sell the spares at the risk of their falling into the wrong hands.
Tony Blair is to make his first working visit to Ramallah on the West Bank in July as a special envoy of the quartet of Middle East peacemakers to discuss Palestinian state-building, it emerged last week after he was confirmed in the high-risk job amid scepticism about his chances of success.
They tussled with each other even to the end. Through the extraordinary unfolding hours of Wednesday’s handover, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown seemed to be locked in the final spasm of their 13-year duel, each jockeying with the other for prominence. How would this day be cast — as Blair’s last, or Brown’s first?