No image available
/ 10 January 2006
Under the system of socialist one-party rule that ended in the early 1990s, commodities such as chocolate and Coca-Cola were beyond the means of ordinary Zambians. Such little luxuries were instead the preserve of the rich and powerful. Today, nearly 15 years later and under liberal economic policies, Zambians have choices.
No image available
/ 10 January 2006
During the 12 years since the Rwandan genocide, national and community courts have tried to bring about justice for victims of the killings and rights abuses that took place in 1994. Among the sentences that have been handed down, however, those that relate to forms of community service are sparking anger among genocide survivors.
No image available
/ 10 January 2006
The reopening of the Afghan Parliament last month was hailed as another step towards stability after a quarter century of chaos. But four years after the fall of the Taliban, many Afghans are growing impatient with a democracy that has produced many elections but failed to significantly improve their living standards.
No image available
/ 10 January 2006
Excitement is mounting in Malaysia over claims of ”Bigfoots” lurking in its southern jungles, with wildlife experts on the hunt for the mythical beast and a telephone hotline set up to report sightings. Bigfoot fever erupted last month when some fish-farm workers claimed to have spotted three of the beasts.
No image available
/ 10 January 2006
The numbers are impossible to digest. Three million people a year die from the disease, most sufferers contract it two or three times a year and, whenever they do, are so struck down that they can neither work nor tend to their families for several weeks at a time. So, if 2005 was the year of Africa, what happened to malaria?
No image available
/ 10 January 2006
China, the greatest economic success story of the 21st century so far, is calling on its growing middle class to share more of its good fortune with the needy. The government has made an appeal for charity amid rising criticism that the spirit of philanthropy is developing a lot less quickly than the urge to accumulate wealth.
Click on image for full-size view.
Turkey’s Health Minister, Recep Akdag, on a visit on Monday to the eastern town of Dogubeyazit, home of Turkey’s first bird-flu deaths, was mobbed by residents who accuse the government of neglecting them because they are Kurds. Akdag tried to assure the area’s majority Kurdish population that Ankara has not abandoned them.
The government is strongly committed to implementing the no-fee school policy in 2006, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Monday. ”KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng have already proceeded to identify schools that will be declared no-fee schools as agreed by the Council of Education Ministers in 2005,” Pandor said.
The government is pressing ahead with legislation that will bar all courts from suspending the coming into force of an Act of Parliament, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development confirmed on Monday. The provision is contained in the Constitution 14th Amendment Bill.