The Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) and Oracle are helping disadvantaged learners solve for ‘x†in their newly established mathematics school. Three hundred and sixty youngsters from grades 9 to 11 no longer wander the streets on Saturday mornings, and RAU tutors are getting down to the business of science, mathematics and technology with them. The […]
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President Thabo Mbeki described the new African era as the season of hope for the continent and one in which Africans are prepared to take care of their own. He was addressing the 26th Singapore Lecture on the island during his one-day state visit on Thursday. He was invited to give the lecture, one that former president Nelson Mandela was also ”honoured” to provide.
Claims of South Africa being a mecca for organised crime are based on speculation, the police’s head statistician said on Thursday. Measuring the contribution of organised crime to the country’s general crime statistics is a near-impossible feat, said assistant commissioner Chris de Kock.
The United States has issued a drought alert for Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, warning that conditions in parts of the Horn of Africa countries threaten starvation, water shortages and diseases. The alert was issued on Wednesday in Washington by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Passions of the heart rather than financial woes account for a growing number of suicides in Southern African nations as diverse and as prosperous and well-developed as South Africa and small, traditional such as Swaziland. Teenage suicide is on the upswing, doubling since 1990 for children between the ages 10 and 14, according to the South African Depression and Anxiety Support Group.
A commercial helicopter was shot down by missile fire north of the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing nine people, the Bulgarian defence ministry said. Also, the country’s most feared terror group, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide car bombing that targeted interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s convoy.
Patients are mimicking the illnesses suffered by their favourite soap and television stars, a British survey suggested on Thursday. More than nine out of 10 doctors claimed to have seen patients reporting symptoms based on what they had seen on TV or read in newspapers, the research claimed.
Spain’s Lower House of Parliament approved the Socialist government’s gay marriage Bill on Thursday, a major step toward making Spain the third European country to legalise same-sex marriages. Belgium and The Netherlands are the only two other European countries that have legalised gay marriages.
Zimbabwean police on Thursday charged a second journalist from a privately owned weekly with publishing false information in an article alleging a scandal over ballot boxes and papers from last month’s elections, a lawyer said. The Standard‘s editor was charged on Wednesday in connection with the same article.