Escalating tension with China, violently illustrated by renewed anti-Japanese protests in Shanghai and other big cities at the weekend, is increasing pressure on Tokyo to expand its military capabilities and back a deepening strategic alliance with the United States, reaching from East Asia to the Gulf. Japan’s pacifist post-war constitution restricts its armed forces to self-defence.
British voters opposed to the occupation of Iraq, the privatisation of public services and the shameful inequality of Britain in 2005 face a problem at next month’s election. Who should they vote for? In most constituencies, they will have no one to vote for because none of the three main parties will be offering a meaningful alternative on what are central issues in political and social life.
After the criticism of President Thabo Mbeki’s Aids policy by former president Nelson Mandela, there was a major uproar within the African National Congress(ANC), a party which expects unquestioning loyalty to its leader. In a extract from his biography about Mbeki, William Gumede examines how the president consolidated his power base and maintains an iron grip of the ANC.
South Africa will host the thirty-second annual conference of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) this year. The five-day conference, to be held in Durban in July, also incorporates the seventh international forum on research in school librarianship. The theme of the conference is school libraries: ‘breaking down barriersâ€. This, says IASL, reflects ‘the […]
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South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on Monday for the Vatican to name Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze as pope to facilitate a better understanding of the poor in developing countries. He was writing in the newspaper USA Today as Roman Catholic cardinals began deliberating on their next pope.
”There is no way that Sontonga and his choir could have anticipated the massive impact that his composition could have … as far afield as Kenya.”
The number of elephants in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park rose by more than 1 000 in the past two to three years, partly because of animals fleeing poachers and civil war in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an official said on Monday.
The new chief executive of arms manufacturer Denel, Shaun Liebenberg, will hold talks with labour unions on various issues within the next two months, trade union Solidarity said on Monday. Liebenberg also said he is planning to visit the near-bankrupt arms manufacturer’s subsidiaries within the next four to five weeks.
President Robert Mugabe on Monday marked 25 years of independence for his country by telling the West to mind its own elections and leave Zimbabwe alone. ”Our elections have not needed Anglo-American validation. They are validated by fellow Africans, and friendly countries from the Third World,” Mugabe said.