According to the World Association of Newspapers, cellphones are set to take over PCs as the medium for accessing the ‘net. That’s good news for publishers, says Matthew Buckland, ‘cos cellphones mean revenue.
Max du Preez’s famously shut-down <i>Vrye Weekblad</i> and new tabloid success <i>Kaapse Son</i> have a gesture in common: the big "up yours" to the establishment. But how are the more polite Afrikaans newspapers making out with a distracted and diversified readership? Toast Coetzer digs into the culture.
On Friday June 11 <i>ThisDay</i> was yellow. MTN Yello. Almost every page of the paper had been washed in yellow, as part of a celebratory campaign from MTN, and it has been the talk of the town since it hit the streets. Industry insiders are questioning whether the newspaper ‘sold its soul’ by going yellow.
Celebrated Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto boldly claims that Third World poverty can be eradicated by transforming "extra-legal" property ownership into legal ownership, with the Deeds Registry proposed as the vehicle. In response, the Jeremy Cronin writes that De Soto’s recipe for promoting people’s capitalism "is a naïve, even dangerous, mirage". Steven Robins adds his response.
Kong Chiong Lok, known as "King Kong", is the face of the global logging industry; a middle-aged, cheerful Malaysian working right on the equator deep in the Gabonese forests, cutting African wood with American machinery to make flooring and plywood for the Chinese and European markets. But the bad news is, the global logging industry is stripping forests unsustainably.
"I will be defending myself because as far as I am concerned, I don’t have any case to answer before this court," said Sam Hinga Norman, on Monday. Although the court officially opened its doors in March, the former deputy defence minister of Sierra Leone and coordinator of the tribal militias known as the "Kamajors" is the first suspect to go on trial at its specially-built premises in the country’s capital — Freetown.
Backs Matt Giteau and Mark Gerrard were included on Wednesday in the Australian team for Saturday’s Rugby World Cup final rematch against England at Suncorp Stadium. In the only two changes from the side that beat Scotland 34-13 in Sydney last weekend, Giteau comes into the starting line-up at inside centre while Gerrard is included in a Wallabies squad for the first time on the bench.
Everyone suspected Denmark and Sweden would finish with a 2-2 tie and knock Italy out. No one really believed it when it happened. Antonio Cassano went on a long run of celebration after scoring Italy’s winning goal three minutes into extra time against Bulgaria, convinced he had put the ailing Azzurri into the last eight of Euro 2004.
Kevin Kennedy, the outgoing acting United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan talks about the humanitarian situation in Darfur, the prospect of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people moving to southern Sudan after a peace agreement has been signed, and the United Nation’s key areas of concern in Sudan.
Ben Shabalala, a member of South Africa’s most famous a cappella ensemble, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, was shot and killed in unknown circumstances, the group’s record company said. He was in his late 40s. Shabalala, whose brother Joseph founded and still leads the group, was killed on June 16 in a Durban suburb.