No image available
/ 9 September 2004
Women in labour so intoxicated they do not know they are giving birth, children fed alcohol to keep them quiet, and low grade wine cheaper than bread. These are realities in South Africa, the country with the worst foetal alcohol syndrome in the world.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
Yasser Arafat’s expulsion is ”closer than ever,” the Israeli foreign minister warned in remarks broadcast on Thursday, as six Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the single deadliest incident, in the northern Gaza Strip, soldiers opened fire from a tank-mounted machine gun at Palestinians, killing at least three, including a 13-year-old boy, and wounding nine.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
African Union-sponsored talks on the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region hit another hurdle on Wednesday as the Khartoum government rejected a draft protocol on the key issues of security and disarmament. ”This draft, the way it had been prepared, contradicts obligations that we have already undertaken,” said Sudan’s deputy foreign affairs minister Najeib Abdelwahab.
UN urged to act on Sudan
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
A draft United Nations resolution on the Sudan crisis is scheduled to be discussed by security council members in New York on Thursday. It has been drawn up by the United States and calls for the African Union monitoring force in Darfur to be enlarged and given a wider mandate.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
Lauren Bacall, the veteran film star famous for her smouldering eyes and sexy voice, launched an attack on Wednesday on Nicole Kidman, who co-stars in her latest film. Bacall, widow of Humphrey Bogart, with whom she appeared in classics such as The Big Sleep and Key Largo, took offence at the Venice film festival when Kidman was described by an interviewer as a screen legend.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
John Kerry accused the Bush administration of raiding state pension funds to pay for its ”mistakes” in Iraq on Wednesday as the campaign rhetoric expended on the ”war on terror” continued to grow. The previous day Vice-President Dick Cheney suggested that Kerry’s victory could lead to another terrorist attack on the United States.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
The British government on Wednesday set a November ultimatum for Iran to suspend all activities linked to production of a nuclear bomb — a deadline that effectively marks the failure of more than a year of negotiations between Tehran and the European troika of Britain, France and Germany.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
The remaining international aid agencies in Iraq are considering pulling out of the country after the kidnapping of four humanitarian workers, including two Italian women, from their headquarters in Baghdad, it was claimed on Wednesday. Jean-Dominique Bunel, a coordinator for the agencies, said the abduction on Tuesday had already prompted some aid workers to leave and others would follow by the end of the week.
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
The strike at South African oil and chemicals group Sasol’s coal mine in Secunda has reached its third day. More than 1 000 striking Solidarity members resumed their protest action on Thursday morning. Trade union Solidarity added that the theme of the strike is "Sasol management style gambles with the lives of its workers".
No image available
/ 9 September 2004
A free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States will have a range of benefits for ordinary South Africans and would also make the country "more attractive" as a foreign investment destination, said John Taylor, the US Under Secretary for International Affairs in the Treasury.