The Islamist Hamas movement on Friday claimed responsibility for a gun attack that killed eight Jewish teenagers at a Jerusalem religious school on Thursday night. ”Hamas is responsible for the attack. The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades will officially claim the attack at the right moment,” a senior Hamas official in Gaza said on condition of anonymity.
South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/Aids, is worried a national programme to fight the disease could founder on a lack of financial resources, it said in a report to the United Nations. President Thabo Mbeki’s government has been criticised for not doing enough to halt the spread of the pandemic.
A national taxi body is to apologise to the woman who was sexually assaulted at Johannesburg’s Noord Street taxi rank last month. ”We would like publicly apologise to her … we just want to meet her,” said South African National Taxi Council secretary general Philip Taaibosch in Johannesburg on Friday.
European Union member states and the United States have been excluded from a list of observers who will be invited to monitor the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, the government announced on Friday. The only European country that had been invited to send monitors was Russia, while the Commonwealth was also left off the invitation list.
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The Mauritian Attorney General (AG) has asked for more time to prepare his documentation in Jacob Zuma’s court battle, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday. Rama Valayden wants to counter Zuma’s attempt to prevent Mauritius from handing documentation over to the National Prosecuting Authority.
A project to remove the remnants of apartheid laws from statute books was launched by the South African Law Commission on Friday. It hoped to review about 2 800 statutes that had been placed on the law books since 1910 within the next 18 months, modernising and simplifying the statute book.
Anthea Buys speaks to Ross Douglas about the commercial possibilities of the country’s first art fair.
South Africa’s musical gems, from old-timers to the new generation, are given voice in two new books, writes Gwen Ansell.
<b>MOVIES OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews Michael Moore’s healthcare documentary <i>Sicko</i> as well as <i>There Will Be Blood</i>.
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> <i>Charlie Wilson’s War</i>, <i>Fool’s Gold</i> and Laura Linney in <i>The Savages</i>.