Liberals are engaged in a fight to ensure the dominance of their ideas in the debate about what constitutes political change in South Africa, but African National Congress supporters must fight an ”ideological struggle” to determine the dominant ideas for the transformation of South Africa, says President Thabo Mbeki.
DA hits out at Mbeki’s ‘mixed messages’
The Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Christmas on Friday with the end of its election saga finally in sight, after a Supreme Court ruling paved the way for pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to be inaugurated president of the ex-Soviet nation. Hundreds of holiday revellers milled around Kiev’s central Independence Square.
United States scientists have detected the largest explosion to date in the universe, which saw a mass equivalent to about 300-million suns sucked into a black hole, Nasa said on Thursday. ”The eruption, which has lasted for more than 100-million years, has generated energy equivalent to hundreds of millions of gamma-ray bursts,” Nasa said.
Iranian bus and truck drivers will soon face being stopped at the side of the road and forced to pee into a bottle as part of a police campaign to weed out drug users.
An estimated 10% of these drivers use narcotics, meaning police have been forced to add thin-layer chromatography urine-testing kits to their arsenal.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) and tour operator Wild Adventures Africa are asking South Africans to donate money to help animals in the countries struck by the tsunami. The NSPCA has pointed out that the rescue of farm animals is crucial to local economies.
A 1997 BMW car once owned by England football captain David Beckham has sold for more than £90 000 (R1,02-million) on eBay — to the dismay of the man who sold it two months ago for less than a fifth of that. Businessman John Pearson said it was "like winning a small lottery jackpot and losing the ticket".
Plans to broadcast a London musical that features a nappy-wearing Jesus who admits he is "a bit gay", have sparked a record 5 500 complaints, a television watchdog said on Thursday. The BBC nevertheless vowed to go ahead with its plan to show <i>Jerry Springer: The Opera</i>, based on the controversial United States talk show.
Miss Beazley, a 10-week-old female Scottish terrior puppy, moved into the White House on Thursday. Bred in New Jersey, Miss Beazley was a gift from United States President George Bush to his wife, First Lady Laura Bush, for her 58th birthday in November.
The South African Reserve Bank accumulated reserves over December, with its international liquidity position rising by -million to a new high of ,4-billion, it announced on Friday. Reacting to the central bank’s latest holdings, as on December 31 2004, Nedbank said there has been strong foreign interest in South African equities.
A team of divers, police and paramedics has descended on the small town of Daniëlskuil in the Northern Cape to recover a body. Located 30km from Daniëlskuil is Boesmansgat — the world’s third-deepest freshwater cave. In 1994, while diving in the cave with his father, Deon Dreyer, then 20, blacked out and sank to the bottom.