A recently constituted environmental action group, the Sasolburg Air Quality Monitoring Committee, is set to fight the air pollution that it alleges oil and chemical group Sasol’s creates in Sasolburg, the organisation said on Thursday.
Amnesty and Oxfam have joined with the International Action Network on Small Arms to campaign for a treaty to stop arms being exported to destinations where thay are likely to be used to commit human rights abuses. The groups are seeking the adoption of such a treaty by 2006.
The government’s response to his criticism of President Thabo Mbeki’s Aids pronouncements recalled PW Botha, satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys said this week. Uys was hitting back at scathing statements by government representatives in reaction to an open letter he had written to Mbeki, calling for the president’s replacement.
A suicide car bomber hit a police station in northeast Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing 10 people, including two people in the car and three policemen, and injuring 28. After the blast occurred, an Iraqi policeman and a television news crew were attacked by the crowds that had gathered at the scene.
Forty-six percent of South Africans who participated in a poll conducted by Research Surveys in August this year believed that President Thabo Mbeki was doing a good job as president of South Africa. Research Surveys said the results of the poll stemmed from interviews with 3 500 respondents over the age of 18.
The emergence of the Group of 20+ developing countries at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun was an "important moral and political victory" that strengthened the bargaining power of developing countries, according to South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel.
The continuing strength of the rand poses a serious and immediate challenge to De Beers — the world’s largest diamond miner — which reports its earnings in United States dollars, managing director Gary Ralfe said on Wednesday. A reduction of staffing levels will be necessary.
The future of the United Nations as a strong international organisation was under threat, said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday. ”Globalisation is bringing about increased economic and political integration. The reality however is that the same processes that are bringing us all together in a global village are placing the residents of the global village in different positions.
Banking group Absa has been hit by another internet theft, SABC television news reported on Wednesday. Police and Absa in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, were investigating claims made a client that R52 000 was withdrawn from his account.
Senior members of Canada’s three largest parliamentary parties called Wednesday on the Canadian government to indict Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.