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/ 16 September 2005
A potentially crippling campaign of fuel protests failed to materialise across the United Kingdom this week as tiny groups of beleaguered demonstrators failed to stop tankers filling up with petrol and diesel at oil refineries and depots across the country. With few demonstrators in sight, it was also business as usual at two refineries in west Wales that, five years ago, witnessed dramatic blockades.
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/ 16 September 2005
There are as many figures pointing to a country’s progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as there are grains of sand on a beach. What is known about a country’s progress towards the MDGs also depends on whose figures you look at.
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/ 16 September 2005
It’s election season in Poland. Confused by the bewildering political menu on offer, Poles might also be forgiven for thinking that they are seeing double. The ubiquitous posters of the plump, grey-haired chap demanding to be made prime minister later this month are (almost) indistinguishable from those of the plump, grey-haired bloke urging that he be made president.
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/ 16 September 2005
The right of refugees to work in South Africa’s private security industry — and by extension, in all fields regulated by trade or professional bodies — are crunch issues in an upcoming battle in the Pretoria High Court. The case has a crucial bearing on whether regulatory bodies can implement their own legislation — ironically, also a constitutional right.
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/ 16 September 2005
The dress code, according to the perfumed invitation delivered by a trained whippet in silk livery, was ”Black tie or traditional”. Far away in a candlelit apartment, heavy with narcotic scents and littered with half-empty flagons of absinthe, a model named Chaz scratched his perfect hair, the stretch marks on his biceps glinting in the flames and asked his exhausted lover what ”traditional” meant.
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/ 16 September 2005
For some reason this year I didn’t mind getting into my swimming togs. How did that happen? It did feel slightly freakish, just getting into my togs for the the first time in — count them — 29 years. Hello legs. Hello knees. I blame the yoga, which seems to help you live in what you’ve got — but maybe it is just middle age.
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/ 15 September 2005
The electronic board in front of the class flickers, and a periodic table is projected on to the screen. ”Do you all know what this is?” booms a voice from the loud speaker. ”Yes!” the students chorus, as any typical class would. Except that this class is far from typical.
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/ 15 September 2005
United States President George Bush was to head back to storm-wracked New Orleans on Thursday as his popularity plumbed new lows and the death toll from Hurricane Katrina rose further. Bush was to make a prime time speech to spell out long-term plans for rebuilding the three Gulf of Mexico states — Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi — that were pummelled by the hurricane.
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/ 15 September 2005
Zimbabwe plans to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for the country’s national park, a project condemned by wildlife experts as potentially cruel and dangerous. Minister of the Environment Francis Nhema said the tigers were in return for Zimbabwe giving China breeding animals such as zebra, elephants and impala.
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/ 15 September 2005
The Democratic Alliance suffered its first losses in the National Assembly on Thursday when five of its MPs used the floor-crossing window to defect to other parties — only hours before the window closes at midnight. Four DA MPs — Bheki Mnyandu, Enyinna Nkem-Abonta, Richard Ntuli, and Dan Maluleke — joined the African National Congress.