At least 35 Rwandans accused in local grassroots tribunals of participating in the country’s 1994 genocide have committed suicide in the past five months, officials said on Monday. The suicides have all come within days of the accused persons being named as genocide perpetrators appearing before traditional gacaca courts, they said.
Twenty-five years after the struggle against white minority rule, Zimbabweans are experiencing fresh trauma at the hands of the present government, said Paul Nyathi, spokesperson for the country’s Movement for Democratic Change on Monday. Nyathi was referring to the Zimbabwean government’s demolition of informal settlements.
Japanese tyre-maker Bridgestone said on Monday it was ”too early” to say whether it would benefit from a severe blow to rival Michelin caused by the French company’s tyres proving unsafe to use at the US Grand Prix. Michelin has rejected any blame for advising seven formula one teams to pull out of Sunday’s race because of fears its tyres might be dangerous.
Afghan intelligence officials have thwarted a plot to assassinate US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and arrested three Pakistanis armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles, a spokesperson for President Hamid Karzai said on Monday. Two senior Afghan officials said the men had confessed to their crimes and said they were in Afghanistan ”to fight jihad.”
Howard Powell scales the mounds of rubble at the former Akro Agate factory site, occasionally bending over to pick up a glass marble that catches his eye. He never knows what he’ll find, and for Powell that’s the best reward. Powell spends hundreds of hours travelling, digging, cleaning and cataloguing the treasures he unearths.
Georgie was hit over the head and is missing part of his ear. Penny’s right hand was mangled in a trap. Tammy’s bullet-riddled leg was amputated. Golden Arrow was shot dead, leaving her infant to starve to death. The baboons of the Cape Peninsula are caught in a war of attrition with their human neighbours.
The European Union battled on Monday to maintain some semblance of unity despite poisonous rifts opened by its Constitution crisis, as the bloc’s new fault lines came under the spotlight at a summit with the United States. Now one French minister has accused Britain — widely blamed for the collapse of a summit last week — of not sharing Europe’s ”vision”.
It’s more retro than techno, in the hips, not the head.
Erika Schutze discovers the appeal of acid jazz
A Durban schoolgirl has made her mark on the medical world by becoming the youngest ever contributor to the internationally respected South African Medical Journal. Thirteen-year-old Safura Abdool Karim’s contribution was a study of ”Playstation thumb” among a sample of her former schoolmates at Crawford Preparatory.
Côte d’Ivoire peace talks scheduled for Pretoria this weekend were postponed on Monday because not all parties could attend, said a spokesperson from the office of South African president Thabo Mbeki. ”We are trying to get all parties down here,” said Bheki Khumalo, adding that a future date had not yet been proposed.