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/ 19 December 2004
The inquest into the cause of pop diva Brenda Fassie’s death earlier this year was finalised in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court last week, Afrikaans newspaper Beeld reported on Saturday. The inquest found that she had collapsed into a coma after smoking cocaine, and did not die of an asthma attack, as was earlier reported.
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/ 19 December 2004
Deputy President Jacob Zuma handed over a traditional court, king’s chamber, community hall and other facilities to the people of Klipfontein, Mpumalanga, on Saturday. The project is part of the government’s commitment to ”improve the status and position of traditional leaders in our country”, he said.
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/ 19 December 2004
Police have closed down an Edenvale nightclub where they found children under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. North Rand police spokesperson Eugene Opperman said there were six under-age children at the Revolutions club in Isando Road. He expressed concern over the attitude of the parents when their children were returned to them.
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/ 19 December 2004
The boxing ring and spectator stands at Safari World zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok lie eerily neglected, as if they have been unused for more than just five months. Bouts stopped in August after a lengthy police investigation into allegations that the 115 fighters employed by the zoo were illegal migrants.
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/ 19 December 2004
It is news guaranteed to make many Republicans squirm. Was Abraham Lincoln, founder of the party now seeking a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in the United States, actually gay himself? A new book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln by CA Tripp, certainly thinks so.
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/ 19 December 2004
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured a historic deal on Saturday with his bitter political foe, Labour party leader Shimon Peres, to guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The deal, to be signed on Sunday, heralds the rehabilitation of Peres after years in the political wilderness.
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/ 19 December 2004
As a lawyer, I have had my fair share of international prison experiences. Penal conditions in Jamaica are no better or worse than many of the other poor countries I have visited, but for an English teenager stupid or naive enough to become a victim of today’s drug culture, they are terrifyingly alien.
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/ 19 December 2004
The secretariat of the Southern African Development Community and governments in the region have been urged to devise new measures to assist the disabled. A new report noted that disabled people in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Malawi still do not enjoy the same access to education as their able-bodied counterparts. It added that disabled people, generally, do not have any vocational skills training or tertiary education.
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/ 19 December 2004
In Ethiopia’s plethora of street cafés, above the whistling of steam escaping from ancient cappuccino machines, the talk is of next year’s parliamentary elections. It is no surprise. In a country with a 2 000-year history, this will be only the fifth time that Ethiopians have gone to the polls. And, elections in 1992, 1995 and 2000 were marred by chaos and serious irregularities.
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/ 19 December 2004
As Nigeria expands its subsidised anti-retroviral (ARV) programme, concern is mounting about how funds are being spent. Two years ago, Nigeria launched what, at the time, was a ground-breaking initiative to provide ARV drugs to 15 000 people living with HIV at less than 10% of the market price. But a year later, the project ran into difficulties when depleted drug stocks were not replenished.