Victims of Sierra Leone’s gruesome rebel war on Thursday hailed the arrest of Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor, who is in United Nations custody in Freetown to face charges of crimes against humanity. Taylor was arrested on Wednesday at the Nigerian border and taken to a detention centre of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Northern Cape farmers beneath the Spitskop dam want the region to be declared a disaster area due to flood conditions that have stopped all production for almost a month, a representative said on Thursday. The Taung area in the North West province — upstream from the dam — has already been declared a disaster area.
The South African National Taxi Council’s new chairperson, Jabulani Mthembu, aims to transform the taxi industry into a national asset, he said on Thursday. Launching the industry’s first women empowerment initiative, he said one of his first priorities is to entrench a value system into the industry.
Will the Cape Town Book Fair be as successful as the world-famous Frankfurt Book Fair? Colin Bower reports.
<b>ANIMATION OF THE WEEK</b>: <i>Ice Age: The Meltdown</i> is a movie that keeps the chocolates in hot little hands and bums firmly in seats, writes Nicole Johnston.
Pianist Paul Hanmer writes about his quest to set aside words and communicate only through music.
The South African government does not expect the recent power blackouts experienced in the Western Cape to either derail economic growth or impact adversely on investment in the country, according to President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki said the power failures would not derail the gross domestic product growth target of an average of 6% between 2010 and 2014.
The International Bar Association (IBA) on Thursday expressed deep concern over amendments to South Africa’s prosecutions policy, which it said granted the government new powers to give immunity to criminals and thereby undermined victims’ human rights.
It was a jail sentence long overdue in the battle to save India’s ”missing girls,” say women’s rights activists. Twelve years after the country enacted laws to curb the killing of female feotuses, an Indian judge handed out the first prison terms against two medical practitioners this week.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Cape Town on Thursday for a three-day state visit that will include political and economic talks with President Thabo Mbeki and an address to the National Assembly. Mbeki will be briefed by Abbas on the situation and developments in the Middle East peace process.