The huge, fragile-looking human towers built by groups from eastern Spain known as castellers were at the centre of controversy at the weekend after a 12 year-old-girl died falling off one. Mariona Galindo died of head injuries after falling from a nine-storey human tower at her home town of Mataró, north-east Spain.
A United Nations ceasefire initiative for Lebanon ran into almost immediate trouble on Sunday night after it was rejected by key Arab countries and provoked Hezbollah’s deadliest strike on Israel so far. The United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, issued a sobering warning that she expected fighting to continue once the text was formally adopted on Monday or Tuesday.
If it weren’t so ominous, we’d all still be laughing at Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Johnny de Lange’s claim that granting same-sex couples the right to marry "could create a huge social cohesion deficit". No amount of politically correct gobbledygook can disguise the statement’s homophobia, writes Marianne Thamm.
Sandton hosted the prestigious Businesswoman of the Year Awards recently. But back in the boardroom, women are still treated differently despite empowerment legislation, say some of South Africa’s top female business leaders. Empowerment pioneer Gloria Serobe has been named Corporate Businesswoman of the Year for 2006.
Johnnic Comunications is on the lookout for a new CEO after firing Connie Molusi from the job this week. This has ignited fresh speculation that Molusi’s departure clears the way for Caxton CEO Terry Moolman to step in as CEO of Johncom, which owns 39% of Caxton.
Crucial peace talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army will resume on Monday in Juba, according to Riek Machar, the chief mediator and southern Sudanese vice-president. "I am optimistic that this time they will come up with a positive result because I have seen the commitment of the Ugandan people," Machar told reporters.
July was the grimmest month for conflict prevention globally in three years, according to the respected International Crisis Group, which is an independent NGO working to resolve deadly conflict. In 36 months of publishing its monthly Crisis Watch the ICG said in a statement that it has not recorded such severe deteriorations in so many conflict situations as in the past month.
Think of it as the Ogies faktor. Crude oil, which had been brought at some cost from the coast to be stored as a strategic reserve in disused coal mines at Ogies, was later made available on a preferential basis to the Sasol/Total-owned Natref refinery at Vereeniging.
We celebrate National Women’s Day, as we rightly should, every year. But how do we deal with the fact that every day the bodies, minds and dignity of thousands of women are violated at the hands of their partners, in their own homes? Domestic violence has risen dramatically in post-apartheid South Africa, and by all accounts we are one of the most violent societies in the world.
Motorists paying record prices for fuel — R7 a litre in the case of Gauteng — will be more than a little surprised to learn that earlier this year an inter-governmental committee, after five years of deliberation, recommended to Cabinet that the system — where synthetic-fuel manufacturers were required to pay back monies received if oil prices were above $28,70 a barrel — be reinstated.