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/ 21 February 2005
Swazi King Mswati III has bought a new Mercedes limousine, the latest in a string of luxury car purchases for himself and his 10 wives in the Southern African kingdom. The 36-year-old king caused a stir on Friday when he turned up at the opening of Parliament in his latest acquisition and ordered his bodyguards to block photographers from taking pictures of the new Mercedes S-Class Pullman.
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/ 21 February 2005
Acclaimed South African author Dalene Matthee died at the age of 67 on Sunday, news reports said. Matthee penned more than a dozen novels, including Circles in a Forest — an instant bestseller when it was published in 1984 — and Fiela’s Child published in 1986 and later adapted into a film.
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/ 21 February 2005
Raymond Mhlaba was a stalwart of the liberation struggle whose life enriched all South Africans, President Thabo Mbeki said in a statement on Monday morning.
The African National Congress veteran and Rivonia trialist died on Sunday night at the age of 85.
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/ 21 February 2005
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Sunday prepared to celebrate his 81st birthday, launching a fresh attack on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and hitting out at his sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo. Mugabe also described the relationship between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and former colonial ruler Britain as ”treasonous”.
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/ 21 February 2005
Seventy-nine people are confirmed dead and another 120 are feared drowned after a ferry capsized and sank during a storm in Bangladesh. The double-decker Maharaj was on its way to the eastern town of Chandpur when it went down in the Buriganga river just outside the capital, Dhaka, in strong winds on Saturday night.
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/ 21 February 2005
Former United States president Bill Clinton said he’d tried it but hadn’t inhaled. George Bush decided that it was best just to duck the issue altogether. ”I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions,” the president told a friend and adviser during his first presidential campaign. ”You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”
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/ 21 February 2005
The political crisis in Togo, where the military has installed the son of the former dictator as president, drew mounting international attention at the weekend as neighbouring west African countries imposed an arms embargo and cut links with the regime.
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/ 21 February 2005
United States President George Bush landed in Brussels on Sunday night for four days of talks with European Union and Russian leaders, which are being held amid unprecedented security. With hopes for the talks tinged with wariness and anxiety in Europe, the first foreign trip of the second Bush term was a signal of the White House’s new priority to repair relations with Europe.
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/ 21 February 2005
The former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers resigned on Sunday as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment. Lubbers (65) who has been in charge of the UN’s refugee operation since 2001, stepped down following a meeting with the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Friday.
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/ 21 February 2005
There is a New Establishment for the New South Africa, underwritten by a New Network of Influence. Such networks are, by definition, amorphous. There is no list, no membership application form. Nor can one say that there is a formulaic list of characteristics; it is not a dating agency. Richard Calland explores South Africa’s batting order of political power.