BEN MACLENNAN AND ANGELA QUINTAL, Durban | Wednesday HOPES for a compromise on the divisive issue of the Middle East were boosted at the World Conference Against Racism on Tuesday night when the European Union accepted new ”compromise language” as an ”acceptable base for negotiation”. Belgium, which holds the presidency of the 15-member EU Council, […]

ANGELA QUINTAL AND BEN MACLENNAN, Durban | Thursday FOR the fifth consecutive day, the Middle East dominated behind-the-scenes negotiations at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, described by a United Nations official as ”very intensive activity”. ”It is 99% about the Middle East,” said Jose Diaz, representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human […]

CHARMAINE PRETORIUS, Durban | Thursday INDIGENOUS peoples from across the globe warned on Wednesday that if the World Conference Against Racism accepted its declaration without changing two paragraphs which denies them the right to self determination, the conference would be undermined. Indigenous peoples from Africa, North America, the Pacific basin, the Arctic, Asia and Central […]

Johannesburg | Monday EUGENE de Kock, the apartheid state’s most notorious assassin, is to ask President Thabo Mbeki to free him from a life prison sentence, a report said on Sunday. De Kock’s lawyer, Schalk Hugo, told the Afrikaans-language Rapport newspaper that only a political decision could save his client from spending the rest of […]

NUDIST king Beau Brummel made his contribution to the World Conference Against Racism on Tuesday with a open letter blaming racism squarely on religion. The letter, addressed to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, described the conference as a farce ”riddled with denial”. Brummel, who described himself as a ”devout atheist”, said […]

”BANANA, banana!” the Frenchman gestured. It was Friday, only the first day of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban and already the poor delegate was lost. He could not remember the name of his lodgings, only the key word ”banana” — which is of course not all that scarce in place names in KwaZulu-Natal, […]

Johannesburg | Monday ABOUT two-thirds of the country’s state attorneys continued their pay strike on Monday after the Justice Department failed in a bid to have the action declared unlawful. ”About 170 of the 250 state attorneys are now taking part in the strike,” Public Servants’ Association general manager Anton Louwrens said in Pretoria. ”Their […]

United Nations | Sunday UN SECRETARY General Kofi Annan welcomed the last-minute agreement reached Saturday at the world conference on racism in South Africa, saying failure would have ”given comfort to the worst elements in society.” In a statement, Annan said the compromises which enabled UN member states to adopt a final declaration after extending […]

THE United States, which pulled out of a UN conference on racism, ON Saturday criticized the conference’s final document as still flawed, but worth a look. ”We are looking forward to examining the final text when it becomes available and expect that will be a few days before we see the final text,” State Department […]

ANGELA QUINTAL, Durban | Monday AS Israel and others accused Arab and Muslim countries of hijacking the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, its official delegation in Durban said it was considering a walk-out. Meanwhile, it has emerged that Israel has asked South African President Thabo Mbeki to intervene in the Middle East conflict. The […]