A post template

No image available
/ 2 September 2005

Microsoft delves into internet telephony

Microsoft on Wednesday directly challenged Google in the burgeoning internet telephony market by buying Teleo, a firm that allows users to make calls from their computers to normal telephones. Microsoft’s entry into Internet telephony follows the launch earlier this month by Google, the world’s leading search engine, of Google Talk.

No image available
/ 2 September 2005

‘It is like a war zone here’

Chaos spread across New Orleans along with the brown, toxic floodwater in the early hours of Wednesday, and the thousands of stragglers still trapped awoke to find themselves in a city with few laws, little mercy and no clear way out. The police seemed to have all but evaporated in the course of a night of looting and gunfire, in which at least one police officer was badly injured.

No image available
/ 2 September 2005

Why city’s defences were down

The Louisiana coastline may have been so badly damaged by the hurricane because man-made engineering of the delta has led to erosion of natural defences, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The engineering of the past 100 years has also disturbed natural barriers which traditionally prevented storm surges and protected against hurricanes, says the society.

No image available
/ 2 September 2005

Former Beslan hostage starts new school year

Malik has the nonchalant manner of any 14-year-old when he says ”I don’t know” or snaps at his little sister, Fatima. But his green eyes are ”those of a 40-year-old man”, his mother says, even a year after he survived the Beslan school hostage massacre. Sitting on a bench outside his family’s home, Malik Kolchakeyev already knows what questions are coming.

No image available
/ 2 September 2005

Not everyone has moved on

Reading Shaun de Waal’s review of Zulu Love Letter (”Woman on the Verge” ) left me wondering just which Zulu Love Letter he had watched. The review is a superficial dismissal of the film; his narrow critical vision does gross injustice to such a rich and layered film.

No image available
/ 1 September 2005

Cholera outbreaks in West Africa kill 500

A cholera epidemic in West Africa has killed almost 500 people out of more than 31 000 cases registered this year across the region, the United Nations World Health Organisation said on Thursday. The highly infectious disease, which comes from contaminated water and food, causes diarrhoea, dehydration and potentially death.

No image available
/ 1 September 2005

The thrills and spills of musical chairs

The 15-day floor-crossing window for MPs and MPLs to change parties without losing their seats got under way on Thursday and brought some surprise defections. Among these were African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) MP and Chief Whip in the National Assembly Louis Green, and ACDP KwaZulu-Natal MPL and leader Reverend Hawu Mbatha.

No image available
/ 1 September 2005

Zimbabwean rapped for impersonating Grace Mugabe

A woman who tried to enrol at a nursing school by impersonating the wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was on Thursday sentenced to 420 hours of community service by a Harare court. Rosemary Chakacha (24) phoned a matron at a Harare hospital on September 13 last year, saying she was Grace Mugabe and that she was sending two girls to be enrolled immediately.