With a change of regime at the Vatican, many are praying for a progressive pope to be appointed. The time is right to move forward on two of the most vexing issues for the laity — contraception and abortion. This is a highly sensitive area but the chance to change the Vatican’s stance could come from new discoveries in embryology.
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) has thrown its weight behind moves to secure two permanent seats with veto rights for Africa in the United Nations Security Council. International parliamentary institutions will be lobbied to support proposals for a further four non-permanent seats for the continent. The PAP adopted a report on reform of multilateral institutions by the standing committee.
President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff warned this week that Russia could break up into several different countries and proposed the creation of “super regions” to be headed by Kremlin appointees. Dmitri Medvedev said, unless political and business elites work together, ”Russia could disappear as a united country”’.
The senate academic freedom committee at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, would like to express our deep concern over the situation in which Professor Kenneth Good finds himself. We feel it important that our voice is heard in defence of the right of all university-based intellectuals to be allowed to speak freely without threat of intimidation or physical sanction.
For the African continent, Karol Wojtyla, otherwise known as Pope John Paul II, is credited with overseeing the implementation of the recommendations of the second council of the all-bishops meeting of the Catholic Church, otherwise known as Vatican II. Was the late pope shackled to the past, or a caring crusader wrongly measured by secular society?
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A new Afrikaans Sunday newspaper, Die Wêreld, goes on sale this week with 200 000 copies and promises of a fresh approach. ”We are hoping to sell out,” editor Maryna Blomerus said in Pretoria on Thursday before the weekend of the 80-page tabloid-sized paper’s virgin issue.
The Western Cape government was on Thursday finalising plans to close certain taxi routes and ranks to quell violence. The provincial transport minister said on Thursday that following an unsuccessful meeting with taxi associations, he ordered the closure and suspension of routes in Kraaifontein, Brackenfell and Bellville.
The mounting public belief that this weekend’s British royal wedding is jinxed was further bolstered on Thursday by the news that the ceremony is to face yet another setback — unseasonably wintry weather. Temperatures in Windsor forecast to dip below freezing the night before, bringing a distinctly chilly start to the lunchtime event.
Iraq’s first elected government in half a century finally took shape on Thursday when a former rebel leader took oath as its first Kurdish president and immediately named a top religious Shi’ite as his prime minister. Jalal Talabani, who becomes the first Kurdish head of state in an Arab country, appointed Ibrahim Jaafari as Prime Minister.