The United States Supreme Court on Thursday refused to issue an emergency order to restore a feeding tube to Terri Schiavo, effectively exhausting all legal remedies in a right-to-life case that has transfixed the US. The White House made it clear again on Thursday that it believes it has done all it can to prolong Schiavo’s life.
”Who is it?” asked a woman at Copenhagen airport, pressing her face against the window of terminal C along with several hundred other passengers, perplexed by the sight of a large, shambling, bear-like figure walking gingerly down the steps of the plane from Tokyo. ”Is he being arrested?” asked one young man.
The reputation of United Nations peacekeeping missions suffered a humiliating blow on Thursday as an internal report identified repeated patterns of sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by soldiers supposed to be restoring the international rule of law. The misconduct of UN forces around the world has become an increasingly high-profile political problem.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman has spent years planting himself atop doomed Palestinian homes, reading extracts of international law to Israeli forces as they demolish the buildings beneath his feet. More recently, the American-born rabbi has been at the forefront of resistance to the construction of what Israel calls its ”security barrier”.
Daihatsu’s Sirion has always been a serious contender. It’s long been one of the best built and best equipped in its sector of the market, providing excellent value for money. Now it’s even better. Astylish little car with a funky interior, it takes a couple of cues from the new Mini and a few more from Daimler-Chrysler’s smart.
Last month, an English soccer referee made headline news when he sent himself off during a match, bringing the game to a premature end. ”If a player did that”, he said, ”I’d send him off, so I had to go.” Toyota South Africa did much the same thing by quietly suspending their hot-hatch RSi from the RunX lineup when they gave the model a face-lift late last year.
Diesel and 95-octane petrol users will feel the pinch when new fuel specifications come into operation next year, eliminating leaded petrol from the market. Diesel users will fork out more for a new, low sulphur version of the fuel, while motorists insisting on using 95-octane petrol rather than 93- or 91-octane will pay a special levy, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Thursday.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/199502/Zim_icon.GIF" align=left>Jostling for votes on opposition turf in Beit Bridge and Gwanda with less than a few days to go before the March 31 poll, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has continued to drum up his anti-Blair rhetoric. But on this leg of his campaign blitz, he added another "imperialist" target to his list: the Oppenheimer family. Mugabe took a swipe at mining magnate Nicky Oppenheimer, whom he described as selfish.
What will happen when President Thabo Mbeki goes? Few questions are exercising the political punditocracy as much as this one. Deputy President Jacob Zuma still seems to be the strongest contender for the presidency, even though his financial affairs are central to what is probably the biggest corruption trial of the new South Africa. In this context, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> recently speculated about the first year of a Zuma presidency.
Descending into the underground shopping mall known as the Galleria in Rosebank, one leaves one of Johannesburg’s more opulent shopping areas for blank windows and papered-over shop fronts. What keeps a shop going for over a century, when all around, others are closing? Passion, says a small Johannesburg retailer, and specialisation.