The government’s plans to fight unemployment and poverty in the country gained momentum this week when Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana announced the establishment of a set of 21 employment agencies to fast-track the recruitment of previously unemployed youth into the labour market. The initiative aims to increase the experience and skills of young people.
Australia is introducing legislation to ban gay marriage, in a move which puts the prime minister, John Howard, squarely alongside President Bush on the issue that may prove crucial to their respective attempts to gain re-election. ”The commonly accepted definition of a marriage is a union of a man and a woman,” Howard said.
A British journalist released from Israeli custody on Thursday said that he had been held in a dungeon with excrement on the walls following his arrest on suspicion of espionage. Peter Hounam was detained on Wednesday by the Israeli security agency on suspicion that he had obtained classified information from Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli technician who was jailed after revealing Israel’s nuclear capabilities to the world.
Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will leave Jamaica for temporary asylum in South Africa this weekend, the government said on Thursday. The former leader will leave the island with his wife and two young daughters no later than Sunday, said Aristide’s government-appointed spokesperson Huntley Medley.
In different circumstances, Lawrence Mushwana and Bulelani Ngcuka would belong to the same support group for civil servants aggrieved by perceptions that they would sacrifice their professional integrity in the interests of their political party.
Both are former deputy chairpersons of the National Council of Provinces, with Mushwana having replaced Ngcuka, who had taken up the newly created post of National Director of Public Prosecutions.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=67046">Protector’s report could hurt Ngcuka</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=67055">Mbeki drawn into Ngcuka probe </a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=67061">Ngcuka rapped over the knuckles</a>
A violent two-month standoff between the United States military and the radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr edged towards resolution on Wednesday, with both sides making concessions to defuse the crisis. Under the deal, al-Sadr pledged to pull his gunmen out of the holy city of Najaf, while American troops agreed to ”suspend offensive operations”.
US pulls out of Najaf after truce offer
Public service watchdogs have voiced concerns about Maud Dikgetsi, a woman entrepreneur who built her communications business on Northern Cape government contracts while married to one of the province’s ministers. The case raises further concerns about the growth of "crony capitalism" in South Africa.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=67042">’It’s not unethical, it’s just empowerment'</a>
Considerate to a fault, the Chinese authorities have closed down more than 8 600 unlicensed Internet cafés in the past three months to ensure the ”healthy development” of the nation’s impressionable young minds. Domestic media controlled by the government have described the move in benign terms, as the nanny state tightening safety standards at businesses that take up an increasing amount of teenage time and money.
What does the socially responsible investment index (SRI), launched by the JSE Securities Exchange last week, really mean? The first of its kind to be launched in an emerging market, the SRI comprises 51 companies that have been rigorously assessed on "triple bottom-line" reporting — encompassing environment, social and economic performance and corporate governance.
A Thai software company claims to have created a programme for Nokia cellphones that can tell whether a caller is telling the truth or not. The controversial programme, created by Agilemobile.com, is available for free downloading on the company’s website and can be easily installed on some of the relatively common garden-variety Nokia cellphones.