We should have been celebrating the 10year anniversary of an extraordinary document, the Constitution. Instead, we were all glued to the television or radio. Inevitably, the verdict totally eclipsed the anniversary; Jacob Zuma stole the show — an exquisitely painful irony, yet also strangely apt.
We publish a translation of the May 1 speech by Bolivian President Evo Morales announcing the nationalisation of that country’s hydro-carbon resources. This translation is based on the Spanish-language text provided on the Bolivian Information Agency website.
A year after Operation Murambatsvina, the government’s campaign to purge informal settlements, the lives of thousands of affected Zimbabweans have not changed. Uprooted last year from their homes in the capital, Harare, families have been squeezed into tiny living spaces authorised by the government on the outskirts of the city.
As tomb raiders plunder Iron Age treasures — beads, gold ornaments and even the bones from burial mounds — archaeologists warn that Cambodia’s rich pre-Angkorian heritage will be completely lost within three years. Hundreds, if not more, of the 4Â 000 or so documented sites across the country have already been torn apart.
Striding through the smoke and flames threatening to torch the new Labour project, like a cornered action hero attempting a final comeback, Tony Blair recently showed once again why he is the most resilient politician in Britain. After days of coded revolt from his heir apparent he faced down his party with a powerful performance at his Downing Street press conference and at an evening session with MPs.
Six people were arrested in the Western Cape for their involvement in internet child pornography and possession of images, police said on Monday. Captain Elliot Sinyangana said the men were arrested as a result of an intensive police investigation which started in October last year.
The United States finally reacted to goading by the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, by slapping a full arms ban on the country on Monday night, claiming it had failed to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokesperson, said Venezuela had forged close relations with Iran and Cuba, both classified by the US as state sponsors of terrorism.
More gang violence rocked São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, on Tuesday as assailants continued attacks against police and other targets, which now have left at least 99 people dead. Overnight attacks left up to 19 dead.
An unprecedented wave of attacks by a notorious drug gang in South America’s largest city, São Paulo, entered into its fourth day on Monday, with reports of at least 20 more killings that raised the death toll to more than 70. Masked gang members hurled grenades at police stations and sprayed them with automatic weapons over the weekend.
Giorgio Napolitano, sworn into office on Monday as Italy’s 11th president, is a former communist who, at the age of 80, is one of the country’s most-experienced politicians. The life senator and former speaker of the lower house Chamber of Deputies moves into the presidential Quirinale Palace for a seven-year term.