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/ 12 April 2005

Facing the facts of life

The Dominican Convent in Belgravia, Johannesburg, embraces many of the values and traditions of the Catholic Church. But it also recognises that learners must face the facts of life head-on – including sex and the real threat of HIV.

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/ 12 April 2005

Flawed system ‘must go’

Lovemore Madhuku is a political commentator and head of the National Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of civil society groups agitating for constitutional reform in Zimbabwe. He suggested that the opposition boycott the elections. He did not cast his vote. Two weeks ago, he was detained briefly for making "unsubstantiated allegations" against the government. He talks to us.

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/ 12 April 2005

A rising acid tide

The name "Witwatersrand" has come to haunt the people who live along this ridge — the source of so much wealth from gold and other minerals. But with many mines nearing the end of their productive lives or already closed, the water table is recovering after being driven down by decades of pumping water out of mineshafts. But with it come rising levels of polluted water, threatening to drown the Cradle of Mankind.

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/ 12 April 2005

It’s my country and I’ll whinge if I want to

Some friends advised me not to respond to Malegapuru Makgoba — "it is not a good idea for a white male to reply". But if a white male academic steeped in African National Congress and Congress of South African Trade Union tenets cannot, then why fight for non-racialism in the first place, writes Mike Morris. There is no one-size-fits-all definition of what constitutes an African, but we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about such issues.

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/ 12 April 2005

Poverty can be conquered

The end of poverty is a choice, not a forecast. There are a billion people on Earth fighting daily for their survival. The world has committed, in the Millennium Development Goals, to cut extreme poverty by half by 2015. By 2025, extreme poverty can be banished. The fight against extreme poverty can be won, but only if George W Bush recognises that military might alone won’t secure the world.

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/ 12 April 2005

Thai environmentalism won’t wave the white flag

Thailand’s natural beauty has long lured millions of foreign vacationers, but after the tsunami, a row is brewing over how best to protect the environment while accommodating surging tourism. Barely 100 days after giant waves pummelled the resort-cluttered Andaman coastline, the kingdom remains torn between safeguarding Mother Nature and promoting a multibillion-dollar industry.

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/ 12 April 2005

Kashmir’s deadly bus route

It is a five-hour journey through beautiful scenery in the northern foothills of the Himalayas. But when 20 passengers boarded two coaches under the snow-capped peaks in Srinagar last week, India’s state capital in Jammu and Kashmir, they were embarking on the world’s most dangerous bus trip. But a suicide attack the day before failed to halt symbolic journey through the divided nation.

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/ 11 April 2005

Large crowd attacks police during arrest

Police used stun grenades and rubber bullets to control about 1 000 residents at Diviwe township in Komga who tried to prevent the arrest of a man for assault on Sunday. The Komga police had to call for back-up as the mob stoned and attacked them in order to prevent them from leaving with the suspect.

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/ 11 April 2005

Striking miners surface for help

Ten miners have abandoned their illegal underground strike at a mine in KwaZulu-Natal since Thursday to seek medical help, it emerged on Monday. Some had been feeling unwell — one of them had flu — and some were feeling claustrophobic, said Michael Campbell, spokesperson for Zululand Anthracite Colliery, outside Ulundi.