An unidentified man struggled at the controls of a Cypriot airliner for 23 minutes in a desperate attempt to prevent the plane from crashing, Greek defence ministry officials said on Tuesday. At 12.05pm, after circling the Greek skies, the plane slammed into a mountain outside Athens, killing all 121 people, mostly Greek Cypriots, on board.
George Bush has never had a reputation as a bookworm, but for a man derided by his critics as an intellectual lightweight the United States president’s holiday reading list packs a punch. As well as brush cutting, mountain biking and fishing, the president will also be tucking into Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky during his five-week summer sojourn on his Texas ranch.
Thousands of Israeli troops moved into the Gaza settlements overnight for the start of a historic operation to remove the remaining Jewish families from their homes and transfer the territory to Palestinian control. Earlier, police and soldiers confronted hundreds of militant young Jews in the Neve Dekalim, who tried to prevent families from leaving by the midnight deadline.
The JSE is set to start Wednesday’s session in negative territory taking its cue from a weaker close on the United States markets overnight, traders said. By 8.40am, near-dated all share index futures (Alsis) were 53 points weaker at 14 250 after 130 contracts had changed hands, while industrial index futures (Indis) were untraded after finishing at 11 575.
Teacher unions are threatening to declare a dispute, as disagreements with the Department of Education (DoE) over the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) continue. The DoE is being accused by the unions of attempting to act outside of the IQMS collective agreement.
Nineteen of the state-employed educators involved in last year’s Mpumalanga matric cheating scandal were found guilty of misconduct earlier this month. The chairperson of the disciplinary committee, Walter Kutumela, says each was fined R3 000 and issued with a written warning.
In the same way that Neil Armstrong’s famous moon walk marked the 20th century in history, biotechnology will no doubt leave its signature on the 21st. Broadly speaking, biotechnology is the industrial use of living organisms or biological processes. Examples of biotechnology products are antibiotics and techniques such as those used in waste recycling.
After a decade of living with our new Constitution, most South Africans are well aware of the strong stand it takes against unfair treatment because of one’s sex or sexual orientation. Similarly, most South Africans are only too well aware of the abuse and violence that women continue to suffer.
Last month, I briefly traced the evolution of the outcomes-based education (OBE) movement over the past 35 years: from its focus on "expanding the conditions of success" in schools and classrooms during the 1970s and 1980s, to the strongly learner-centred, future-focused, personally empowering emphasis of "the five Cs" in today’s "transformational" models.
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where you should be. Now put the foundations under them." What I like about these words by Henry David Thoreau is that he reminds us of the value of having dreams to work towards.