Few views of China’s spectacular economic growth could be more impressive than the one offered by the property company Tomson Riviera in Shanghai. From the top floor of its sleek, luxury apartment blocks in the Pudong development zone you can, say the brochures, look out across the Huangpu river at one of the world’s most futuristic skylines.
In a tower high above his battle-scarred hilltop base, a United Nations peacekeeper from India keeps watch along the Lebanese border. An Israeli fortress bristling with antennas looms before him metres away across the frontier. The men of the 28-year-old United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) continue observing, patrolling and delivering humanitarian assistance in south Lebanon.
The failure of the Department of Home Affairs to deal with the vast backlog of asylum-seeker applications is resulting in unlawful mass deportations and escalating human rights abuses at the infamous Lindela Repatriation Centre, according to activists in the refugee rights field.
At the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto, participants were treated to a video portraying a world without Aids. In this hypothetical 2031, a man fuels his luxury car with water, a surgeon conducts non-invasive surgery with magnets, and a bored-looking nurse sits at the end of an empty corridor with nothing to do.
Tensions between Iran and the West have rarely been greater than they are today. On the one side, President George W Bush has accused Iran of being behind the attack by Hizbullah on Israel that sparked the Lebanon war; and both the United States and Britain say Iran is bent on developing nuclear weapons. On the other, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has claimed that the Bush administration is trampling on the rights of Muslims throughout the world.
Apparently it will not be long before uniformed Spot operatives are patrolling our airports. Although this sounds like a parody of a parody — one of those weak jokes referencing Austin Powers that a certain kind of middleÂaged man still insists on making — screening passengers by observation technique (Spot) is already up and running in the United States.
The Vodacom Journalist of The Year awards kicked off in Johannesburg on Monday evening, recognising the weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper and Moneyweb for exceptional investigative journalism.<
President Thabo Mbeki will keep Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in her post, despite mounting calls for her to resign. Mbeki has defied critics over the years by showing confidence in her and re-appointing her for a second term even when she had already antagonised stakeholders during her first term.
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The young man briefly opened his bloodshot eyes and scanned the bleak, chaotic surroundings. His muscular body shivered uncontrollably beneath the white, government-monogrammed sheet as the paramedics lifted him on to another trolley. He tried to raise his arms; his hands and forearms, thighs, chest, back and feet were wrapped in thick, white bandages.