No image available
/ 19 February 2006
A Cape Town-based property magnate on Saturday criticised the proposed moratorium on the sale of South African land to foreigners. The Democratic Alliance also criticised the proposal on Friday, saying it could have profoundly negative economic consequences for South Africa.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday hailed the recent democratic elections in Haiti and presidential winner René Préval. However, Mbeki’s message said nothing about the future for Haiti’s former president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, who has been living in exile in South Africa for about two years.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
The entire Western Cape was without power early on Sunday and no trains were running following faults on transmission lines that were the result of misty conditions and residual pollution from recent fires, according to Eskom. Meanwhile, power failures also affected northern Johannesburg and most parts of Ekurhuleni.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
The world of professional flower growing is one dedicated to the pursuit of beauty. But it is also a world of rapacious piracy, as was revealed by a break-in at the offices of one of Italy’s most successful flower growers last week in which a computer containing the firm’s most closely guarded secrets was stolen.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
Search teams looking for the estimated 1 800 people missing after a landslide buried a village on Leyte island in the Philippines on Friday found only bodies, as rescuers warned there is now no hope of finding any more survivors from the mudslip that buried three farming villages, including Guinsaugon.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
A new Palestinian Parliament, dominated by the militant group Hamas, was sworn in on Saturday amid threats of an international boycott and domestic paralysis that could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Israel has promised to enforce an economic blockade of Palestinian areas.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
Rioting over the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad claimed another 16 lives on Saturday night in Nigeria as churches were burned by protesting Muslims. Meanwhile, the Danish cartoonist whose drawings originally sparked the furore used an interview with a British newspaper to defend the right to a free press.
No image available
/ 19 February 2006
A poultry farmer has died of suspected bird flu while health workers were carrying out a mass culling of birds after India was hit by the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu, officials said on Sunday. The strain has also been detected in a wild duck found dead in France, and 135 wild swans found dead in Iran have tested positive for H5N1.
No image available
/ 18 February 2006
Ray Barretto, a Grammy-winning Latin jazz percussionist known for integrating the conga drum into jazz, died on Friday, officials said. He was 76. Barretto had undergone heart bypass surgery in January and suffered from pneumonia, said George Rivera, a friend and family spokesperson.
No image available
/ 18 February 2006
The most dangerous form of bird flu was confirmed on Friday in Egypt, the second African country hit after Nigeria, while France, Europe’s largest poultry producer, said the rapidly spreading H5N1 virus has probably also penetrated its borders. Meanwhile, new cases were confirmed on Friday in Austria, Slovenia and Italy.