The brutal murder of a top Nigerian politician has raised the spectre of a bloody election campaign in the run-up to presidential and gubernatorial polls in 2007, politicians and observers said on Friday. Funsho Williams, a leading Lagos politician and gubernatorial hopeful, was found murdered at his Lagos home on Thursday.
An unknown gunman shot and killed Somalia’s constitutional and federal affairs minister in the provincial town of Baidoa on Friday, just a day after the Somali government was plunged into crisis when 18 ministers quit over its policies. Abdalla Derrow Issak was shot three times as he left a mosque after Friday prayers.
In response to a recent article by Darryl Accone, Exclusive Books’s Batya Green argues that there is a far greater threat to reading in South Africa than book chains.
Artist Gabrielle Ozynski is passionate about Yeoville’s potential, its ambience and its future, writes Pat Schwartz.
Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene pulverised South Africa’s bowling with double centuries during a 471-run unbroken stand in the first Test on Friday. The overnight pair batted through the entire second day’s play as Sri Lanka amassed 485-2 in their first innings by stumps, a lead of 316 over South Africa’s meagre first innings total of 169.
The African National Congress accused the media on Friday of distorting its policies in a bid to sow racial division among South Africans — particularly residents of the Western Cape. Recent ”gross distortion” of the ANC’s position on equity and restitution had been no innocent mistake, the party claimed in a statement.
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa on Thursday asked Parliament to approve a Z$327,2-trillion supplementary budget — more than twice the amount of money the government had initially said it would spend in 2006. Murerwa had at the beginning of the year set the Budget for 2006 at Z$123,9-trillion.
South Africa should take a ”rights-based” position over the current conflict in the Middle East involving Israel and Lebanon, official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. The sensible position for South Africa to take is, he said, the most obvious.
South African media group Primedia has acquired a 50% shareholding in Merchint — a company focused on developing proprietary software and hardware technology that can broadcast or narrowcast digital media into any environment where a consumer is at the point of making a purchase decision.
<i>Mail & Guardian</i> editor Ferial Haffajee took top honours at the MTN Women in the Media 2006 awards ceremony in Johannesburg on Friday, claiming the overall award. The awards honour women in the South African media industry who have excelled in their careers.