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/ 10 October 2005
It never rains but it pours, as the people of Louisiana know to their cost. Since Hurricane Katrina hit in August, United States President George W Bush and the Republicans have been inundated by a rising tide of sleaze allegations. Bush’s bungling in Katrina’s aftermath cost him dearly.
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/ 10 October 2005
Eight years after the Department of Education defined conditions of service for adult literacy teachers, they may be on the brink of receiving formal contracts. Criteria that formalise and improve work conditions for adult basic education and training (Abet) teachers have been agreed on.
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/ 10 October 2005
Political commentator Frederik van Zyl Slabbert believes more say by voters over their public representatives, not floor-crossing, is what is needed in South Africa’s electoral system. He spoke to the <i>Mail& Guardian</i>.
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/ 10 October 2005
It has been 10 years of profits as usual for the pharmaceutical industry. But the recent judgement in the Constitutional Court may finally have breathed life into the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act, giving consumers some hope of relief from high prices.
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/ 10 October 2005
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has slammed an incursion by Ugandan rebels, the Lord’s Resistance Army into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but warned Kampala against using force to dislodge them. He reminded "governments that any recourse to the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of the DRC contravenes the United Nations Charter."
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/ 10 October 2005
Schools are big business these days. And it’s not just proceeds from tuckshops and cake sales that make it into school accountants’ books.
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/ 10 October 2005
A controversial new partnership between the South African government and the world’s leading software company, Microsoft, is at the centre of a heated debate about the best way to roll out IT access to poor communities. The memorandum of understanding aims to roll out free Microsoft software and training to telecentres in all 284 municipalities over three years.
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/ 10 October 2005
Recent figures from the Life Offices Association show that the sale of retirement annuities as a percentage of the life industry business has fallen over the past six months. With the bad publicity and rulings against the life industry by the Pension Funds Adjudicator, it would appear that investors have real concerns about the appropriateness of RAs as a savings vehicle.
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/ 10 October 2005
Palestinian schoolboys in a Jerusalem suburb have lost their football pitch and volleyball court to a giant cement wall Israel has built through their playground, allegedly to stop militant attacks. Pupils returned to class last week after the weekend to find the latest stretch of Israel’s deeply controversial West Bank separation barrier had been built in 48 hours.
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/ 10 October 2005
Liberians go to the polls on Tuesday in the country’s first general elections since civil war was brought to a halt in 2003. About 1,3-million registered voters — out of a population of 3,5-million — will queue on October 11 to choose a president from 22 candidates.