No image available
/ 18 September 2006
The point at which President Hugo Chávez decided that London should serve as a model for services and governance in Caracas was not immediately apparent, writes Hugh Muir. He came in May, visited City Hall amid much controversy and fanfare, and was soon gone. But the result of his visit is likely to be an extraordinary deal struck with London’s mayor.
No image available
/ 18 September 2006
Hurricane breeding grounds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are being warmed by greenhouse gases, raising fears that more intense and devastating storms will be unleashed on nearby coastlines, scientists warned last week. The scientists used 22 climate models to investigate the possible causes of a rise in sea surface temperatures.
No image available
/ 18 September 2006
Women have moaned on about the lack of older women in the media for decades, but now things are getting more desperate. Even deeply beautiful women are being snipped, sliced, stitched up, pumped up, siphoned off — as if there is no life after the first wrinkle.
No image available
/ 18 September 2006
If there’s a substance we take for granted, but would have unimaginable consequences for modern life if we were to lose it, it’s concrete. It gives us much of the built environment we daily take for granted. Yet, as noted by a recent article in The Guardian, cement — the basic building block of concrete — comes at a high environmental cost.
No image available
/ 17 September 2006
Our political chickens, in different guises, are coming home to roost. Perhaps it is time to consider what the repercussions could be if we continue to reject and to ridicule those who try to deal with the consequences of their political actions. Quite apart from the sentence of the court, the behaviour of the accused too often condemns them to the ranks of fools, writes Antjie Krog.
No image available
/ 17 September 2006
I can’t say that Australian "Wildlife Warrior" Steve Irwin’s passing inspires even the most transient distress. Rather it is a sense of relief that yet another exploitative human parasite has left us. And a parasite Irwin was. With his blustering invasions of the natural world, he personified slum-grade television.
No image available
/ 17 September 2006
International Monetary Fund policymakers on Sunday backed the most sweeping overhaul of the institution for six decades to give fast-growing China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey more influence. The plan to overhaul the 61-year-old IMF, whose balance of power still largely reflects the economic landscape at the end of World War II, was given the green light by the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee.
No image available
/ 17 September 2006
South Africa’s government long ignored warnings about drug-resistant tuberculosis, putting millions of HIV-positive people at risk now that a dangerous new strain of TB has emerged, Aids activists say. South African officials have scrambled to react to news this month that extremely drug resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, has killed at least 60 people in KwaZulu-Natal and is likely spreading.
No image available
/ 17 September 2006
New Zealand is heavily favoured to win its third successive Women’s World Cup rugby crown when it meets England in the final on Sunday at the Commonwealth Stadium. New Zealand’s Black Ferns have won 13 straight World Cup matches, including defeats of the United States in the 1998 final in Amsterdam.
No image available
/ 17 September 2006
Argentina’s Marco Antonio Barrera boxed his way to a unanimous decision over Rocky Juarez on Saturday, pleasing no one but himself with a workmanlike performance to keep his WBC super featherweight title in a fight that drew boos from the crowd for a lack of action.