South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Monday told Western newspaper editors to stop generalising about Africa and concentrate more on the continent’s success stories. Issues of real concern, such as Western poaching of Africa’s best and brightest talent, were being overlooked as the world’s media focused on wars and poverty.
Another two of the men arrested in connection with the death of actor Brett Goldin and his friend Richard Bloom were jailed on Monday, according to radio station Cape Talk. It said Zubair Davids and Yazeed Eyssen were sentenced to two years’ jail each by a Wynberg regional magistrate after entering into a plea bargain.
The notorious information scandal of the 1970s was never sufficiently probed, according to a report into corruption under the apartheid government released on Monday. The information scandal, which rocked the Nationalist government between 1977 and 1979, was the result of secret funding by then prime minister BJ Vorster to ”wage propaganda wars at home and abroad”.
Former champions Gaston Gaudio and Juan Carlos Ferrero, two of a host of men praying that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal lose their way at Roland Garros, reached the second round at the French Open on Monday. Argentinian 10th seed Gaudio, the 2004 champion, breezed past Croatian qualifier Roko Karanusic 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
The African National Congress on Monday defended President Thabo Mbeki’s leadership style. ”Statements about tendencies towards dictatorship and the centralisation of powers within the ANC and government presidencies … are not borne out by reality,” ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe told a press briefing in Johannesburg.
Rioters tore through the capital of Afghanistan on Monday, chanting ”Death to America” and torching cars and buildings after United States troops shot dead at least four people following a traffic accident. Gunshots could be heard near Kabul’s diplomatic quarter as restaurants, shops, cars and dozens of police posts were set ablaze.
Nuclear-weapons countries have failed to reduce their nuclear arsenals, which threatens world peace, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. She repeated South Africa’s support for international treaties and instruments in the fight against international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Withdrawing the recently formed Southern Spears from the Super 14 and Currie Cup competitions has left South Africa red-faced among its rugby-playing peers, franchise chairperson Aldy Meyer said on Monday. He told Parliament’s sport portfolio committee that two major sponsorships, one of them worth R15-million, were put at risk.
A new round of talks on Monday, hosted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which are designed to ease tensions between rival factions, made significant progress. Aziz Dweik, the Hamas speaker of the Ramallah-based Parliament, told reporters that he believed agreement on a common approach was within reach.
Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father. Researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.