The earthquake that devastated the southeast Iranian city of Bam on December 26 killed 26 271 people, according to a new and dramatically lower death toll announced on Monday by the Islamic republic’s official statistics centre. The previous official toll from the quake had stood at 43 000 dead.
<b>Q&A</b>: JAZZWORX with Matthew Krouse
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK</b> One begins to wonder, after <i>The Curse of the Jade Scorpion</i>, who the ageing Allen could cast in the Woody Allen role in his next movie, writes Shaun de Waal.
LEON ENGELBRECHT, Harare | Friday DETAINED Zimbabwean journalist Peta Thornycroft was moved from Chimanimani to a police cell in Mutare, north east of Harare, on Thursday afternoon, her son, Adrian, said on Friday. “She has had access to her lawyer, which is a good thing. Her cousin has also seen her and said she seems […]
Ramallah | Friday AN ISRAELI bulldozer started demolishing a wall at the main entrance of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah on Friday morning, shortly after the Israeli cabinet declared Arafat an ”enemy”. ”A bulldozer is opening a gap in the wall in front of the main entrance,” a source said. The bulldozer was […]
Dar Es Salaam | Wednesday MALARIA kills more than 100 000 people every year in Tanzania, but it was no longer getting due attention like HIV/Aids. ”The biggest threat to the fight against malaria today is HIV-Aids,” the programme manager of Tanzania’s National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Alex Mwita, was recently quoted as saying by […]
<i>The White Life of Felix Greenspan</i>, published this week by <i>M&G</i> Books, revisits the autobiographical character of <i>The Celibacy of Felix Greenspan</i>. In his book Lionel Abrahams shows us the disabled writer Felix from childhood on, grappling with issues from sexuality to politics. In these excerpts, Felix experiences life at boarding school.
The world’s top jazz and soul musicians gather in Cape Town this weekend at the North Sea Jazz Festival for an impressive 32-act line-up, writes Rob Rose.
The writing is on the wall for South Africa. Both the official South African observer team and our rulers believe the Zimbabwe election was either free and fair, or at least acceptable. This declaration makes it clear that they believe in an African form of democracy where large-scale attacks on opposition members, including torture, arson, […]
Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga’s new African National Congress chairperson Fish Mahlalela is not scared of confrontation. The former Umkhonto weSizwe tactician has repeatedly risked his political career and cushy government salary to bump heads with far more powerful leaders on matters of principle. His fearless stance against corruption and a matching obsession with “due process” have […]