No image available
/ 17 November 2006
Last Tuesday was a historic day in Parliament, with South Africa becoming the first African country to allow same-sex couples to get married. South Africa is only the fifth country in the world to remove legal barriers for same-sex couples to marry. The Civil Unions Bill has caused major divisions and conflicts since last year when the Constitutional Court set a December 1 deadline for the recognition of same-sex marriages in line with the right to equality.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
Multinational corporations should help redress imbalances in the world economy by putting a higher priority on investing in developing countries, Chinese President Hu Jintao said on Friday. Hu said China will accelerate reforms of its economy to counter its growing and politically contentious trade imbalances.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
<i>Moody’s Economy.com</i> says while the rand could remain vulnerable to further bouts of weakness and volatility in the coming months, its medium-term outlook is for a stronger rand amid rising foreign reserves and strong inflows of foreign direct investment.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
The Inkatha Freedom Party and the African Christian Democratic Party on Friday added their voices to calls for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s suspension in the wake of alleged crime boss Glenn Agliotti’s arrest in connection with the Brett Kebble murder.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
Libya on Friday dismissed as unfounded a report that it had supplied Islamists in Somalia with arms, saying Tripoli had played a peace-broker role for years between the Somali government and its rivals. ”It is unfounded and absolutely untrue and incredible to name Libya in this subject,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hassouna Chaouch in statement.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
Top United States officials on Friday mourned the death of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, whose ideas helped power a conservative policy revolution in the 1980s. Friedman died of heart failure on Thursday at the age of 94 in San Francisco, California, near Stanford University where he taught most recently, friends and associates said.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
Cool seasonal rains have slowed the march to war between Somalia’s Islamic militants and the secular government, but in the weeks ahead the tropical sun will break through the clouds, dry the muddy roads, shrink the flooded rivers and, many fear, ignite a civil war.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
In a sign of growing frustration at diplomatic inaction as Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates, Spain, France and Italy on Thursday unveiled a five-point peace initiative, taking Britain by surprise. Downing Street confirmed on Thursday night that it had not been consulted and had no prior knowledge of the plan.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
Vaccination programmes are likely to eradicate the crippling polio virus around the globe within four years, health officials claimed on Thursday. The virus has been targeted by the World Health Organisation’s eradication programme since 1988 and if eliminated will become only the second disease to be wiped out completely.
No image available
/ 17 November 2006
What’s a television without its remote control? Not much, decided a thief in south-western France who returned to the home from which he had just stolen a TV to pick up the remote control — and was arrested. The man robbed a retiree’s house in the village of Mussidan, taking the TV set and some hunting rifles, police said.