In the four months since the former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced to flee Haiti, only one foreign force has shown the potential to reunite the country — the Brazilian football team. There is no exaggerating the appeal of Brazilian football here.
One of the final taboos in Germany is the portrayal of Adolf Hitler in a central role on screen. He has been depicted sometimes as white space, but more usually he has little more than a cameo part, often shot from behind. But now, nearly 60 years after his death, two lavish German film productions set in the Third Reich are breaking that taboo.
The Sontanga Quartet joins hands with Alex van Heerden and Derek Gripper to try to explore the traditional Afrikaans music of the Western Cape, while using contemporary classical and jazz idioms.
President Robert Mugabe ruled out any new talks with Zimbabwe’s opposition on the country’s economic and political crisis, citing its alleged ties with Britain, the former colonial power, the state Sunday Mail reported. Addressing a ruling party assembly, Mugabe alleged the Movement for Democratic Change was taking orders from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his government.
Iraq’s new government is expected to announce on Monday an amnesty offer for Iraqi insurgents who have fought against United States forces, in a striking attempt to draw a line under the US occupation of the country. Though the amnesty is aimed at the ”footsoldiers” of the insurgency, it will include the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The rows over money and design that have bedevilled Freedom Tower, the skyscraper that will dominate the site of New York’s destroyed World Trade Centre, were set aside on Sunday as a granite cornerstone was officially laid on Independence Day.
A tenet I follow is to invest only in countries whose currency maintains its value over the long term. If, like me, you invest in the United States, you have to ask yourself: Can I expect the US dollar to maintain its long-term value, asks Martin van Blerk. With debts mounting and the dollar sliding, the United States may not be a good investment.
Two local media groups, Naspers and Johnnic Communications (Johncom), are looking for growth beyond South Africa’s borders. Afrikaans media and pay TV behemoth Naspers is poised for good growth through acquisitions in the Far East and Africa. Its English-medium peer, Johncom, will need to bed down problem areas while keeping one eye on growth in Africa, says John Slettevold, media analyst at UBS Warburg.
As the third annual summit of the African Union draws closer, the spotlight is falling on the organisation’s newest branch: the Peace and Security Council, and its proposed standby force. Analysts hope the 15-member council — which still has to be ratified by a majority of AU members — will prove a more powerful and efficient agency than other bodies set up to resolve the continent’s woes.
”Human trafficking” calls to mind images of women and children being abducted, shipped to foreign countries, imprisoned and subjected to continual rape. But international definitions of trafficking are broad. Professional sex workers who voluntarily look for work in other countries but do not find conditions amenable can declare themselves ”trafficked” under most legislation.