Twenty years after a group of publishers gathered to discuss how to get African ideas on the West’s agenda, a gathering at the British Parliament offered a measure of how much the publishers have accomplished. This week in London, journalists, lawmakers and African hands came together for the launch of the latest offering of the African Books Collective.
North Korea accused the United States administration on Thursday of having suggested the Asian country’s ”elimination” and blamed the US for a breakdown in multilateral talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. Vice-President Yang Hyong Sop was speaking in Pretoria after talks with Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
A 30-year-old woman who fell down a narrow mineshaft near the Marathon informal settlement in Primrose, Germiston, on Thursday was rescued just before 1pm, emergency services spokesperson Johann van den Heever said. Patricia Nzimande was found at a depth of 45m to 50m, deeper than emergency staff had originally thought.
Governments should pass laws on the responsible use of sun beds and ban their use by people under the age of 18, the United Nations health agency said on Thursday. The increased popularity of artificial tanning machines is a key reason for the rapid increase in skin cancer, the World Health Organisation said.
Nigeria’s daily power requirement is about 5Â 000 megawatts (MW). At most times, however, the National Electric Power Authority (Nepa) is barely able to generate 2Â 000 MW, prompting exasperated Nigerians to give the utility another name: Never Expect Power Always.
”Dude!” exclaimed last week’s Fortune magazine cover, ”Dell’s No 1”. The PC manufacturer named after its 40-year-old founder, Michael Dell, has become America’s most admired company, ahead of General Electric, Starbucks and Wal-Mart.
A new Arrive Alive campaign is to focus on dangerous sections of roads where almost 6 000 people died in accidents in South Africa last year. The project will start before the start of the Easter weekend, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. Eighty new patrol cars will monitor the hazardous locations seven days a week.
More than three-quarters of South African households receive free water and more than half receive free electricity, Statistics South Africa said in Pretoria on Thursday — but two million households are without toilet facilities. The figures are part of a non-financial census of municipalities for the year ending June 2003.
For a games industry expert, Trip Hawkins has had a bumpy career. He was one of Apple Computer’s first employees and one of the founders of Electronic Arts in 1982, before leaving in 1991 to initiate the ill-fated 3DO console, which eventually slipped into bankruptcy.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday stepped up pressure on opposition MPs to back his 2005 Budget, which Parliament must pass within two weeks or the government will collapse, jeopardising his planned Gaza evacuation. The 2005 state Budget has been touted as the last political chance for staunch opponents to scupper Sharon’s plan to quit Gaza.