The events that led to the Oilgate saga: Iraq invades Kuwait; UN Security Council imposes comprehensive sanctions on Iraq, including lifeblood oil exports; UN approves Oil for Food programme to relieve civilian hardship — Iraq allowed to sell oil, with proceeds held in trust by UN and released only for approved humanitarian imports … See our timeline on how the ANC got involved …
Jozi FM, a community radio station that broadcasts to the southern parts of Johannesburg including Soweto, Ennerdale and Katlehong, is undergoing a major reshuffling of its senior management. The restructuring comes amidst a wide yet unverified radio industry rumour that funds from the station were not reaching the community on whose behalf Jozi FM is being run.
"If I’m asked about 7/7, I — a Yorkshire lad — will respond first by giving an out-clause to being labelled a terrorist lover", writes Dilpazier Aslam, a trainee reporter from <i>The Guardian</i>. "I think what happened in London was a sad day and not the way to express your political anger."
The number of man days lost to strikes this year rose from 200Â 000 at the end of the first quarter to 700Â 000 at the end of June, according to Andrew Levy & Associates. The major strike trigger was wages, which accounted for 99% of the total number of man days lost in the country. But this, according to an employment adviser for Andrew Levy & Associates, was unlikely to become a trend.
Before breathing a sigh of relief at rebel leader John Garang being sworn in as vice-president of Sudan, analysts were pointing to the difficulties that lie ahead. The peace brokered is a narrow one: a bilateral arrangement between the northern government of Omar el Bashir in Khartoum and Garang’s Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement in the south.
Cellphones moved a step closer to being fully-fledged Internet terminals when the .mobi domain was introduced this week. Until now, surfing the Web using a cellphone was hamstrung by two key issues: the speed of the connection and image-heavy websites designed for much larger computer screens.
South Africa has about five times more reptile species than would be expected for a country of its size, and many of them are endemic (found only here). But scientists know very little about their conservation status and they are increasingly under threat from development, climate change and collectors.
It was announced last week that Michael Markovitz, former special advisor to Icasa chairperson Mandla Langa, has been appointed director of convergence at listed private media company Primedia. Markovitz informs <i>eMedia,</i> that he began as an official Primedia employee on July 1, which is one day after his six-year contract with the regulator ended.
Iran’s new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is one. So are Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. These men, we are told by CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the London Financial Times, are "hardliners". But what exactly is a hardliner — and why are some world leaders hardliners and others not?
When asked if one likes Harry Potter, it is always a temptation to reply that in order to like somebody, one first has to meet them and given JK Rowling’s profound inability to write characters — indeed, to write anything at all — it is clear that I will wait for my introduction to Master Potter in vain.