Britain has bungled its command of an international campaign to rid Afghanistan of opium poppy, and its failure has contributed to an unprecedented increase in heroin production, says a senior US official. Afghanistan is now poised for a bumper heroin season, says the official.
Sudan supports ”massive human rights violations” committed by militias against non-Arab civilians in the conflict in its western Darfur region, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Friday, urging Khartoum to disarm and disband the militias.
Children scream. Smoke billows. A fighter holds a gun to a man’s head and orders him to kill his cowering family. A decade after Rwanda’s genocide, the horror of the 100-day slaughter the world did little to stop is being brought to the big screen through the tale of one man’s courage in the face of unspeakable terror.
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Reacting to what it calls ”wild claims” by opposition parties over a shipment of arms for Haiti, the government has issued a statement on behalf of National Conventional Arms Control Committee chairperson Kader Asmal ”to put this matter to rest”.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille received a movie star welcome in a Pietermaritzburg suburb while campaigning for the April 14 elections. Children swarmed around De Lille begging for her autograph which she signed on pamphlets outlining what her party was about.
A spree to baptise roads, bridges, public places and universities after South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela continues unabated..
Impresarios and producers are frequently enticed by the idea of opera performed somewhere other than the sanctity and security of the opera house, despite the fact that this move often leads to untold difficulties. Poor sound and an ungainly diva did not detract from the relevance of Cape Town Opera’s production of <i>Fidelio</i> on Robben Island, writes Daniel Somerville.
Jealousy can make you nasty. Set for Robben Island, ferries at Cape Town’s Waterfront were loading passengers who had been able to fork out R1 250 to watch Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, on the island. For most Capetonians, watching the event on a big-screen television at a distant athletics stadium seemed the only option. The green grass on the pitch matched the envious mood, reprots Fidel Mbhele.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Of all the political parties contesting the elections none has been hunting votes — from both the ruling African National Congress and from other opposition parties — as aggressively as the Democratic Alliance. Despite this, the party insists it has a positive campaign message: "South Africa Deserves Better". The DA is fighting tooth and nail to win over "soft" voters in every part of SA.
Cleaners, gardeners and catering staff at the University of Cape Town (UCT) receive as little as R7 an hour — and now the students are demanding a better deal for them. Catering, cleaning and maintenance were controversially outsourced in 1999, in a process that saw more than 200 workers retrenched.