At least 67 people were killed over the weekend in the largest organised attack yet by drug gangs against Brazilian police and security forces, officials confirmed early on Monday. The apparent offensive by organised crime groups was launched on Friday night and continued until Sunday in Brazil’s commercial capital, São Paulo, and outlying regions of São Paulo state.
One of human civilisation’s best moments must have been the day when two foes decided that, instead of clobbering each other with clubs to decide whose argument was better, they would defer to a wise elder to arbitrate. And even more importantly, that they both would live with the sage’s decision.
Embraced by Nazi Germany and perfected in apartheid South Africa, Sasol’s Fischer-Tropsch process, which converts gas or coal to liquid, is now the sexiest thing in energy. In a post-9/11 world beset by sustained high fuel costs, concerns over energy security and growing environmental pressures, Sasol finds itself alone as the market leader in the conversion of both coal and gas to liquid fuels.
Delivering judgement in the Jacob Zuma rape trial, Judge Willem van der Merwe, inspired by Kipling, aimed a final comment squarely at the former deputy president: "If you can control your body and your sexual urges, then you are a man, my son."
Danny Halamish feels abandoned by Israel, with the government intending to dismantle his home in the wildcat Jewish outpost of Maale Rehavam in the heart of the occupied West Bank. ”Every day that passes makes my being Israeli less meaningful to me. I have to think twice before I say I’m Israeli,” says Halamish.
It has soft lights, gleaming red and blue surfaces and a soothing video projection on the wall showing swirling underwater bubbles. Welcome not to an art hotel, but to Europe’s trendiest public toilet. The super-loo, which opened in Berlin on May 4, is the last word in chic public architecture.
World stock markets finally expunged the memories of one of the worst bear markets in history recently when they surpassed the levels reached ahead of the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2000. The most widely used yardstick of equity performance around the globe, showed that a recovery in developed economies coupled with boom conditions in emerging markets has created a new record for shares.
”The Native Club contributions by Sandile Memela and Ebrahim Harvey were thought-provoking. I am not an intellectual; I am just an ordinary black citizen with questions to ask and a keen interest in the realm of ideas. I agree with Memela that we do not need intellectuals whose sole obsession is to criticise the government at every turn,” writes Gladwell Monageng.
Tourists and young couples ambling through the historic centre of Krakow on a warm spring afternoon were stopped in their tracks by a sight reminiscent of the era of martial law. As drinks flowed in the open-air cafes of Poland’s ancient royal capital, a phalanx of armed police in full riot gear inched its way slowly through the medieval city.
Since opening an embassy in Khartoum in January 2004, South Africa’s involvement in Sudan has grown more visible. President Thabo Mbeki has a key role in the African Union-led Sudan peace process and Pretoria currently chairs the AU’s post-conflict reconstruction committee on Southern Sudan.