In Limpopo province, zoologists Peter and Janine Snyman used a far-sighted strategy to help save a colony of endangered Cape griffon vultures from being wiped out by the muti trade. About 11 years ago, the Snymans realised that young birds in the colony breeding in the Blouberg Nature Reserve were being sold to local sangomas.
The last rebel leader still fighting in Burundi, Agathon Rwasa, emerged from the bush this week to begin preparing for negotiations in Dar es Salaam to join the peace process. Those talks could begin as early as next week. Rwasa, leader of the Forces of National Liberation, told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> that the time was right to join the peace process.
Marilu Torres’s knees hurt when they swell, her varicose veins are a constant bother and cataracts are slowly stealing her vision. Even so, the 72-year-old hits the streets looking for work every day. ”This year is my golden anniversary as a sex worker,” laughed Torres, who became a prostitute as a young widow with no other means of feeding her children.
For decades farmers in Salman Pak, a lush townland by the Tigris river, used canopies of date palms to shelter orange groves from a broiling sun. When insurgents took over the area earlier this year they used the foliage to hide stolen cars, weapons caches and supply routes from American drones buzzing overhead. Rory Caroll reports.
The phrase ”too little, too late” is taking on new meaning in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region as countries race to meet the SADC-set 2005 target of 30 % women’s representation in decision-making structures. The first democratic local government elections in Lesotho are due to take place on April 30.
The British Conservative opposition leader Michael Howard on Tuesday paved the way for a bitter end to the general election campaign when his party launched a United Kingdom-wide poster campaign explicitly condemning Tony Blair as a liar. In an echo of the Conservatives’ notorious ”demon eyes” of 1997, the leadership unveiled a poster of a shifty-looking Blair standing next to a stark message.
”The campaign is flat out, and so is the prime minister; a whirlwind of argument, arms flailing, fingers stabbing. By the time I get to speak to him, he has already chaired a morning press conference, been quizzed for half an hour by doubting Radio 1 music station listeners and knocked off a couple of other TV and radio interviews.” Jackie Ashley joins British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the campaign trail.
Luke Harding samples five-star luxury in Berchtesgaden, a place that became famous for all the wrong reasons. ”Enchanted by the Alpine scenery, Hitler first came here in 1925. In 1933, shortly after the Nazis took power, he bought a villa — the Berghof — in the resort. By the late 1930s, Obersalzberg had become an exclusive retreat for the führer and his circle,” he writes.
Picture a township of 100 000 people going two weeks without water, suffering sewerage bursts, no fuel, and power blackouts that often last half the day.
That is the reality in Mabvuku/Tafara township, one of at least seven Harare suburbs afflicted by the progressive collapse of basic services.
Weather forecasters expected thunderstorms that have caused severe flooding in eastern Ethiopia would continue into the weekend, raising fears of further deaths. The Wabe Shebelle river burst its banks last Saturday after two days of heavy rains. It stretches for more than 1 340km and is Ethiopia’s largest river, with a water catchment area of 200 000km.