Graffiti and candles have damaged Oscar Wilde’s memorial but lipstick may ruin it forever, his grandson says Stuart Jeffries Oscar Wilde’s grave in Paris has put up with a lot in its first century the flying angel headstone has been castrated (twice), commemorative candles have scorched the front and multilingual graffiti are regularly scrawled over […]

‘Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.” “A true friend stabs you in the front.” “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” “The only difference between the […]

Debbie Fox South Africa should clean up its act offshore or face unknown damage to the marine environment, says government scientist Lynn Jackson, deputy director of marine and aquatic pollution control in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Jackson says too little is being done to gauge the effects of sewage and industrial effluent […]

Ebrahim Harvey left field Because the Industrial Revolution, which gave rise to classes and class struggles, began in England and Europe there is no doubt that the historical, ideological and epistemologi-cal foundations of Marxism reside with white European intellectuals, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Black people in the Third […]

Nawaal Deane The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a United States-based organisation, this week stepped in to shield Rafael Marques, an Angolan journalist, from continued harassment by the Angolan government. In a letter to Angolan President Jos Eduardo dos Santos, the CPJ strongly protested against the government’s continued persecution of Marques and other journalists in […]

THE World Bank is lending Ethiopia up to $800m to help rebuild its shattered economy after two years of bitter border war with Eritrea, Bank officials have said. Between July 2000 and July 2001 the World Bank will have lent the eastern African country between $700 and $800m. World Bank representative to Addis Ababa, Nigel […]

SUDANESE trickled to the polls at the start of a 10-day election that incumbent Islamist President Omar al-Beshir and his party look set to win because of a massive opposition boycott. All Sudan’s main opposition parties, most of which are involved in a civil war with Beshir’s government, were boycotting the vote to protest against […]

TOGOLESE Prime Minister Agbeyome Kodjo has called for the international community to provide developing countries with the means necessary to battle international organised crime. “It is a moral duty” to assist developing countries, Kodjo said, calling for “affluent countries to put in place help programs to fight poverty which feeds organised crime.” – AFP

Tara Turkington, Johannesburg | Friday A RARE camelthorn forest in the southern Kalahari is being threatened by the large-scale collection of dead wood under contract, claim outraged experts. The 2200ha Khai Appel Nature Reserve near Kathu, in the Northern Cape, is home to one of only two camelthorn forests in Southern Africa, and has been […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday THE South African government had barely finished congratulating US President-elect George W Bush when it reminded him of the United States’ role in fighting global poverty and war and in promoting development in Africa. Throughout the late nineties, then deputy-president Thabo Mbeki developed a good relationship with his counterpart Al […]