The revolutionary spirit lives on — at least for Walter Salles, whose Motorcycle Diaries, one of the hot tips for the Palme d’Or, was screened at the Cannes film festival on Wednesday. The film is based on the diaries of Ché Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado when, as young men in 1952, they undertook a journey on their not-so-trusty Norton 500 motorcycle around South America.
Malawi goes to the polls on Thursday after a general election campaign that confirmed the emergence of a new political force in Africa: people with HIV/Aids. Political parties have swept away a decade of silence and embarrassment to compete for the votes of those stricken with or affected by the disease.
Let’s get something straight on the mercenary mess. The (alleged) bad guys are in Chikurubi prison in Zimbabwe and in Equatorial Guinea, not in the Union Buildings in Pretoria. In the concern, the cacophony and the clamour of the past fortnight, the government is now being blamed for the 70 South Africans holed up in Zimbabwe and the seven in Equatorial Guinea.
International ratings agency Moody’s said on Wednesday that South Africa’s Baa2 foreign currency rating and positive outlook reflect the government’s efforts to build on the political and economic achievements of the first post-apartheid decade.
The ACT Brumbies must overcome a psychological barrier and the weight of history to lift their second Super 12 rugby crown against their New Zealand nemesis the Canterbury Crusaders in Saturday’s final. Australia’s top-performing rugby province have home-ground advantage and form on the board heading into the decider.
High-flying Orlando Pirates were brought down to earth by Wits University in a narrow 1-0 defeat in a Castle Premiership match at the Johannesburg Stadium on Wednesday night. The teams remained deadlocked after a goalless first half. It was a well deserved victory for the disciplined visitors, who showed total disrespect for the defending league champions.
The scandal at Abu Ghraib prison was first exposed not by a digital photograph but by a letter. In December 2003 a woman prisoner inside the jail west of Baghdad managed to smuggle out a note. The note claimed that US guards had been raping women detainees, who were, and are, in a small minority at Abu Ghraib. Most of the coverage of abuse has focused on male detainees. But what of the five women held in the jail, and the scores elsewhere in Iraq?
His was a classic British military establishment career. Now the old-fashioned adventurer is in prison, charged with plotting to overthrow a West African dictator. Simon Mann is accused of planning to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea by leading a mercenary force into the capital, Malabo, and kidnapping or killing the president.
In the latest attack on the beleaguered Zimbabwean press, the editor of the independent newspaper The Standard and a reporter were arrested by police this week for a story on the murder of a mining magnate. With its latest attack on the free press, Zimbabwe’s state forces are setting out to destroy the last shreds of democracy before the elections next year.
The South African men’s hockey team are going to the Athens Olympic Games, after the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, rejected the Hellenic Hockey Association’s appeal on Wednesday. The decision brought to an end months of anxious waiting for both countries.