The Kremlin is facing growing public anger at its refusal to recognise Tuesday night’s double airline crash as an act of terrorism. Officials continued to suggest on Thursday that it would take another two days for the investigation to draw any definitive conclusions.
In a dramatic reversal of its previous position, the White House this week conceded that emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases were the only likely explanation for global warming. Two years ago, when his administration last published a document claiming that global warming over the last few decades had been prompted by human behaviour, United States President George Bush dismissed it as something ”put out by the bureaucracy”.
Tired of being remarkable just for their wealth, Russia’s super rich want to buy aristocratic class — and a development on the outskirts of St Petersburg offers just that. There the elite of the country’s cultural capital can buy houses built to resemble famous palaces, such as Versailles in France and St Petersburg’s own Peterhof.
The critical gaze of the international community is as much on South Africa as it is on Equatorial Guinea as the trial of 18 men charged with plotting a coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema plays out. Any legal travesty in the oil-rich African state will reflect badly on South Africa as it does on the man who came to power in 1979 by killing his uncle.
A small aviation company based in the Free State town of Bethlehem has emerged as central to the arrest of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark. Mark Thatcher was arrested on Wednesday by the Scorpions for allegedly aiding the plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinean government.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121234">SA, E-Guinea mull Thatcher extradition</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121192">Mark Thatcher’s ‘difficulty'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121195">’Dimwit’ beyond mum’s help</a>
<i>Dancing in the Dust</i> provides the reader with a fresh, insightful view of township life in the turbulent ’80s. For the post-1994 generation this novel will help to recreate those times that could so easily fade from memory, writes Jane Rosenthal.
Centering on Jules Street Furnishers in one of Johannesburg’s most crime-ridden districts, David Cohen’s tale is of theft, burglary, hold-ups and family betrayal. <i>People who have Stolen from Me</i> is a well-written page-turner. Anthony Egan reviews.
A tribute to a mother’s influence, Kate Turkington’s <i>Doing it with Doris</i> is a collection of tales about the journeys, adventures and encounters inspired by inspired by her mother’s philosophy of "make it happen". Shirley Kossick takes an armchair trip.
"A film like this, bizarrely, hasn’t been made before," Roodt says. Come to think of it, he’s right. Despite the pandemic in South Africa, can you recall ever seeing a full-length film featuring an HIV-positive protagonist? Nicole Temkin chats to director Darryl Roodt about <i>Yesterday</i>.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> It seems that documentaries are all the rage at the moment and <i>Touching the Void</i> will do much to continue the upsurge in interest. Compelling from start to finish, this is a true story of British mountain-climbing gone wrong, writes Shaun de Waal.