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/ 29 October 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140506/shaik_icon_new.gif" align=left>Secret documents seized by the Scorpions during their investigation of the arms deal — revealed for the first time at the Schabir Shaik trial — give a remarkable insight into the intense lobbying that went on to secure contracts. Newly evident is the role played by President Thabo Mbeki — then deputy president and chair of the Cabinet committee that oversaw the arms acquisition process.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=124569">How Zuma ran up massive debts</a>
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/ 29 October 2004
The most alarming thing about the Schabir Shaik trial in Durban is that the revelations being made by various witnesses seem unsurprising. As each new narration unfolds we learn of chicanery, double-dealing, hustles, swindles, lies. And we do little more than shrug. If these things were even 10% true, we should be outraged.
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/ 29 October 2004
"The kidnapping of Margaret Hassan, the British-Iraqi aid worker, is shocking but not surprising. We have come to accept that the same thing might happen to any of our family or friends. In fact, it already has happened to my dearest friend Nada." Kidnapping and killing is a daily reality in Iraq, but the atrocities go unrecorded and the dead are unnamed in the West, argues Haifa Zangana.
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/ 29 October 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140248/USA2.GIF" align=left>The United States presidential election is often described as 50 state elections. The right of states to make their own rules for the way they want to run elections — from ballot design to the requirements for registering as a voter — are honoured in this federal system. But more than half of Americans want to abandon the country’s outdated electoral college system.
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/ 29 October 2004
It’s supposed to be a period of serene, prayerful contemplation, a time to explore the depths of faith and to think of the poor. But for many of Kenya’s 10-million Muslims, the month of Ramadan this year has become a reflection on crime, HIV/Aids and the effects of the United States-sponsored war on terror on the followers of Islam around the globe.
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/ 29 October 2004
With the winner of Saturday’s election in Botswana a racing certainty, interest has focused on exactly how many of the 552 890 registered voters will turn out and who will be the strongest opposition. The battle in this landlocked, diamond-rich state will be the first test of the electoral code adopted by the Southern African Development Community nations at their summit in Mauritius in August this year.
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/ 29 October 2004
Springbok coach Jake White has kept faith with most of his winning Tri-nations team when he named the side for the first Grand Slam Test against Wales next Saturday. On Friday, White announced just three changes — two enforced due to injury — to the run-on side that did duty in the last Tri-Nations Test against Australia.
Markgraaff is Sarfu deputy president
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/ 29 October 2004
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Four years on, the United States presidential election is again a dead heat between a radical conservative and a mainstream liberal. And once more, Ralph Nader’s oddball candidacy threatens to tip the delicate balance to the right. This time the consumer activist is a much-reduced force. The overwhelming majority of his closest aides and supporters have defected, including Michael Moore.
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/ 29 October 2004
Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s most famous female detective, exists only on paper but the fictional heroine’s exploits have been followed by millions and popularised the arid southern African nation. Mma Ramotswe made her debut in 1998 in The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, which rapidly became a bestseller. It was followed by five others, which were lapped up by readers all over the world.
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/ 29 October 2004
European Union leaders will meet in an emergency session in Rome on Friday to deal with an unprecedented institutional crisis that deepened this week when the incoming commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, was forced to withdraw his entire team of commissioners. Barroso chose to backtrack when it became clear that members of the European Parliament would vote down his choice of commissioners.