The Democratic Alliance (DA) emerged victorious when residents of Tafelsig in Mitchell’s Plain voted for their candidate Sheval Arendse in Wednesday’s by-election in Cape Town. The by-election was the focus of Wednesday’s 14 by-elections around the country as it increases the majority of the DA-led multiparty coalition in Cape Town to two seats in the 210 seat council.
An increasingly powerful Islamic militia rolled through its newly captured territory and installed a religious court in one town as the remnants of a United States-backed alliance of warlords desperately tried to regroup. The Islamic Courts Union controls the Somali capital and surrounding areas after defeating the secular warlord alliance in weeks of battles that killed at least 330 people.
The deputy secretary general of the United Nations was on Wednesday night accused of making ”a very, very grave mistake” after calling the Bush administration hypocrites who were feeding a right-wing anti-UN frenzy in middle America.
Internet giant Google may reverse its decision to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, one of the company’s founders has said. Sergey Brin said the Californian company had ”felt that perhaps we could compromise on our principles, but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese” with Google.cn.
African leaders, farmers and heads of international development agencies will meet in Lagos on Friday hoping to bring a new lease of life to the continent’s degraded soil and so tackle food shortages affecting over 200-million Africans. The theme of the summit, which runs from June 9 to 13 is "Nourish the soil, feed the continent."
Do South Africa’s media avoid sensationalism? Do the media make a good contribution to addressing poverty and HIV/Aids in South Africa? What influence do the media have on South African society at large? This week, take part in an interactive quiz with 10 checkpoints to rate the health of South Africa’s media.
China said on Thursday it is battling a proliferation of new power plants that are being built without permission and threaten to upset plans for a more environmentally friendly energy mix. Local authorities have been moving ahead with new power plant construction to meet a serious electricity shortage in recent years.
It is the Cup of Dreams — and the Cup of Paradox. As hundreds of millions of people tune in for Friday’s opening of the football World Cup on the immaculate fields of Germany, there will be the temptation, if only for a moment, to forget the other reality: that 99% of soccer is played at amateur level.
The role of the South African government in the covert "rendition" of Khalid Mehmood Rashid is an affront to the foundational values of our democracy. The Constitution was written with the ghosts of those who had suffered arbitrary detention, torture or disappearance watching over its drafters with the expectation that never again would such abuses be allowed.
When the World Cup kicks off in Germany on Friday, millions of Vietnamese fans will combine two national passions — football and betting. Bars screening the matches, many of them after midnight, are tripling their beer and food stocks, anticipating a sustained, enthusiastic and noisy onslaught in one of the world’s most football-crazed nations.