No image available
/ 6 February 2004
As France’s national assembly neared the end of a four-day debate on a ban on religious emblems in state schools, the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, said ”similar legislation” was planned to stop hospital patients refusing to be treated by male doctors.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
Journalists at Zimbabwe’s only independent daily have left their offices after a court ruled that working without a government-issued licence is a crime. The Daily News, which was refused a licence and is a platform for dissent against President Robert Mugabe, will not appear on Friday.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
The South African government will "soon" be inviting proposals for private-sector participation in certain port operations, starting with the Durban Container Terminal, according to Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe, who was speaking at the opening of the second African Intermodal conference in Cape Town.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
Libya is to send its foreign minister, Abdulrahman Shalgam, to Britain on Monday for the highest-level meeting between the two countries since relations began to deteriorate in 1969. The Foreign Office confirmed on Thursday that Shalgam was to meet Tony Blair and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
A wireless internet portal will soon be available in South Africa — a step towards bridging the "digital divide". According to a Unicef report released late last year, only 35% of the population had phones and a mere 6% had internet access in 2001.
MyWireless by Sentech, to be introduced over the next few months, will end the need for phone lines to connect to the internet.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
If someone shouts "Truce!", it means a temporary cessation of hostilities. But be sure that when it’s over the war will go on. Thus the "truce" called by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry, in the war on software pirates.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
The UN’s top nuclear official called for a new international regime to destroy the flourishing black market in nuclear technology on Thursday, describing current controls as ”kaput”. Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said the trade in the technology was now a dangerous ”supermarket”.
The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reveals how the African National Congress, through its close association with an empowerment oil trader, joined a dangerous courtship dance with the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. The story raises important questions about party funding and the extent to which our ruling party may be prepared to use its access to state power to get more of it.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
"I’d never been skiing. I’d tried ice-skating once, but spent the whole horrible half-hour clinging to the bar at the side of the rink, my ankles shaking either through feebleness, fear or both. So when I was told that even I could learn to cross-country ski in three days, I was sceptical." There’s more to skiing than plunging down snow-covered slopes, as Dea Birkett found out.
No image available
/ 6 February 2004
”We are marching because we are concerned about the serious threat to health care in this country. It is the inability to pay doctors better — we are losing our experienced doctors.” Angry doctors will march on Parliament on Friday, the day of the State of the Nation address. Dr Kgosi Letlape, chairperson of the South African Medical Association, speaks out.