Explosions rang out and fires blazed early on Friday in south-western New Orleans, as authorities battled to restore order after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, United States television reported. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at federal officials, saying ”they don’t have a clue what’s going on down here”.

From Cape Town, to Jozi, to Banjul and now Geneva, there is no stopping Rastafari lawyer Gareth Prince in his cross-continental fight to be admitted as a practising attorney and for Rastafarians to be allowed to use cannabis. His determination follows in the face of a ruling against him and in favour of the South African government.

Research has shown that only 1% of almost one million evictions from farms in the past 10 years have involved a legal process. The research also indicates that evictions peaked after the 1997 introduction of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Esta), designed to secure the tenure rights of farm dwellers.

Old Mutual’s takeover of Swedish life and funds management group Skandia is hanging in the balance after eight of Skandia’s 11 board members objected to the deal on grounds that Old Mutual has a substantial share in Zimbabwe Newspapers, proprietor of such notorious purveyors of government propaganda as The Herald and The Chronicle.

”You have the power of X!” That’s the message to the youth in the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) new advertising campaign in the run-up to the local-government elections. The campaign is perhaps the poppiest yet to be run by the IEC, but it also takes its tone from the idea of ”ordinary people speaking to ordinary people” more than previously.

Terry Crawford-Browne, the prominent campaigner against the arms deal, will be back in court on Tuesday in a bid to stop Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s application for his sequestration. Since 1998 Crawford-Browne has fought a one-man campaign to stop the deal and expose corruption in the defence acquisition process — and it has bankrupted him.