THE US walkout from the UN conference on racism in Durban is a victory for all the victims of the United States, an official Iraqi newspaper said on Wednesday. “The withdrawal of the American delegation in Durban is a victory for all the Africans, Asians, Indians, Australians and others whose ancestors suffered from American colonialism […]

Luanda | Monday ANGOLA and Zimbabwe want to create joint companies to manufacture weapons, an Angolan military source said on Monday, after defence ministers from the two countries met at the weekend. The proposal surfaced during the meeting between Angolan Defense Minister Kundi Pahyama and his Zimbabwean counterpart Sydney Sekeramai, the source said, speaking on […]

CHRISPIN INAMBAO, Windhoek | Monday AIR Namibia passengers screamed uncontrollably, some of them vomiting, when an airplane door apparently opened at 9_000 feet last week. The flight was from Ondangwa to Eros Airport on Wednesday night. “They screamed, shouted and did all sorts of things … one of the passengers even tried to close the […]

CHERYL GOODENOUGH, Durban | Tuesday FOR two months Nusreta Sivac, a former Bosnian judge, was detained in a concentration camp in northern Bosnia where she was tortured and raped. Fifteen-year-old South African Lorraine Nesane was painted white after being accused of shoplifting by a white manager. At age 10, Afro-Brazilian Crueza Maria de Oliveria worked […]

Durban | Thursday THE controversial NGO declaration, which has been rejected by 77 NGOs from 37 countries in Europe, North America and south-east Asia as well as by five prominent human rights groups, was handed to the World Conference Against Racism on Wednesday. The NGO Declaration and Plan of Action will be included in the […]

Durban | Thursday DURBAN is set for potentially crippling protests on Thursday, as the bulk of heads of state attending the World Conference Against Racism jet into the city. The leaders including Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Palestinian counterpart Yasser Arafat are among 15 heads of state, mostly African, that will attend the week-long […]

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 […]