The largest and probably worst child abuse case ever heard in a French criminal court got under way on Thursday when 66 adults, including 27 women, appeared in a specially built courtroom accused of raping, sexually abusing and prostituting 45 children.
A confidential report on the abuse of MPs’ travel vouchers currently being considered by a special parliamentary task team lends new weight to calls for legal action against Bathong Travel, the only agency implicated in the scandal which has not yet faced liquidation or criminal charges.
The Month of Photography and the Month of People’s Photography have brought contradictory images to the Mother City, writes Nawaal Deane.
The sister of the boy accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation told the court on Thursday that on one of the first times the family visited Neverland ranch, the boy asked if he could sleep in the singer’s bedroom. The family agreed.
The city was quiet but the soldiers sitting and swaying inside the Stryker were animated by their favourite debate: was it better to be five metres or 20 metres from an explosion? The front gunner belonged to the 20-metre school, figuring the greater distance reduced your chances of losing limbs to the blast.
President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement of the retirement of Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson means there will be a new incumbent by the second half of this year. He or she will inherit a right mess. A few weeks ago it might have been hoped, thanks to the adroit handling of the African National Congress’s January 8 statement by Judge Chaskalson, that the crisis had passed …
South African business retained its confidence, but that buoyancy may be tempered in the months ahead by high oil prices and runaway consumer spending.
On Thursday, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) released its Business Confidence Index for February at 126,9, but the index was recorded ahead of last week’s Budget and does not include this week’s spike in the oil price and continued consumer spending.
I watched the first episode of the new SABC3 weekly newspaper drama, <i>Hard Copy</i>, with more than a modicum of interest. I’d heard there’d been some squabbling between the SABC and e.tv, each one claiming it first thought up the idea of a programme set in a local newspaper. In fact, SABC television wins hands down with <i>Final Edition</i>, aired 18 years ago.
In a stinging critique of the British government’s Commission for Africa initiative, the NGO Action Aid cautions Prime Minister Tony Blair that the first step in supporting Africa’s development "must be to do it no harm". The NGO acknowledges Blair’s "good intentions", but derides United Kingdom policy and practice. Africa’s problems have constituted complex barriers to development that it cannot tackle alone.
Wealthy nations must “fulfil their pledges” to increase aid to developing countries to meet the United Nations millennium development goals – including curbing the spread of HIV – within the next decade, according to a report Investing in Development. The report will be presented to the Group of Eight industrialised nations at its meeting in July and to the UN General Assembly in September.