United States troops have found a vast network of bunkers beneath the Iraqi desert that insurgents used as a base, complete with kitchen and air conditioning, the US military said at the weekend. The largest complex, measuring 166m by 269m, was carved from an old rock quarry near Karma, in the restive province of Anbar, west of Baghdad.
The Competition Commission is conducting a preliminary probe into fees and charges in the banking industry, media reports said on Monday. Commission spokesperson Zodwa Ntuli said the purpose of the inquiry was to determine whether a full investigation was required.
The city (Johannesburg, that is) is moving. Perhaps that means the whole country is moving — ugly, functional, here-today-gone-tomorrow Johannesburg being South Africa’s powerhouse, cultural and economic hub, magnet for Africa’s rough and ready, and barometer of what’s up and what’s down.
The government calls the operation "Murambatsvina", a Shona word meaning "to drive out rubbish". But, on the city streets where the campaign has been carried out, people describe it as Zimbabwe’s own "tsunami": a razing of informal settlements and markets that has left thousands homeless and jobless.
The focus always falls on the disparities between the salary packages of chief executives and the lowest-paid workers, but the era of black economic empowerment deals reveals much larger gaps between the top names and the broad base of shareholders.
Justin Nurse runs a small business, Laugh It Off Promotions. It sells a few hundred T-shirts each year. SABMiller is a huge multinational. Its sales of Carling Black Label beer in 2000/01 were 1,4-billion 340ml bottles. When Nurse developed a T-shirt that parodied SAB’s product, the latter launched vigorous litigation to protect its trademark against this ”onslaught”.
A leading Democrat called for Guantánamo Bay to be shut down on Sunday after the United States army admitted at the weekend that it had uncovered instances of desecration of the Qur’an at the prison camp. The Pentagon report, released late on Friday, by Brigadier General Jay Hood detailed five cases of desecration at Guantánamo,
An Australian academic who was deported from Botswana this week — apparently for his criticism of the government — has said the incident ”seems to have vindicated our arguments” about the state of democracy in the country. Professor Kenneth Good was declared an illegal immigrant in February.
Trevor Ncube’s remark (Mail & Guardian, March 18) that Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) does not have the muscle to dislodge the ruling Zanu-PF from power ruffled feathers in the opposition and civic society in Zimbabwe. Many believed it was not only wrong but also mistimed, as it came on the eve of a crucial election.
Haim Yavin, a revered anchor of Israel’s Channel One news programme for more than three decades, has made a documentary in which he concludes that Jewish settlements are endangering the country and that the occupation of Palestinian land is a crime.