There is growing evidence of political pressure on Zimbabwe’s media with government stepping up its harassment of journalists at two of the country’s remaining private publications, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard. Over the past week, journalists from the Mail & Guardian‘s sister publications have been questioned by the police about stories published as far back as February.
The political and security situation in the Great Lakes region has deteriorated over the past decade despite robust intervention by the international community through protocols, peacekeeping missions, bilateral arrangements and development initiatives. Failure to make an impact has been partly blamed on the inability of state-centred mechanisms to address issues such as the stateless Banyamulenge.
I miss the anti-globalisation movement. Not because I want to smash capitalism, and not because I think two dark towers on the swampy banks of the Potomac are responsible for poverty, disease and the voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me to buy new Nikes — but because the most creative street protests since 1968 made it respectable to talk about the international financial system over dinner.
Famine in Africa could worsen unless action is taken to tackle the continent’s HIV/Aids epidemic, according to a senior United Nations official. “Unless urgent interventions are made, the epidemic could cause a steady fall in agricultural production, which would fuel serious famine in African countries,” said Peter Piot, executive director of the joint UN programme to fight HIV/Aids.
Click on image for full-size view.
No image available
/ 30 September 2004
Year-on-year producer price inflation for all commodities for South African consumption (PPI) rose to 1,1% last month from 0,7% in July. This 0,4 of a percentage point increase could be explained by increases in the annual rates of change in the PPI for petroleum and coal products, transport, agricultural products and food at manufacturing (from -1,4% to -1,3%).
No image available
/ 30 September 2004
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has welcomed a commitment by Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk to complete a strategic environmental assessment in Pondoland, an ecologically sensitive area of the Eastern Cape currently under threat from mining and the construction of a toll road.
No image available
/ 30 September 2004
The South African government has called for a peaceful resolution to the impasse surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, following a meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday, the government news agency, BuaNews reported on Thursday.
No image available
/ 30 September 2004
”With one fluid movement, Mabele’s assistant heaves the bleating goat over his shoulder and into the open boot of the car. He then repeats the process with the second goat, which seems more stoical about its fate. The goats soon settle down and two satisfied clients drive off. Goats are famously obliging.” The divide between town and country, urban and rural, is by no means clear-cut.
No image available
/ 30 September 2004
In Beslan, they are filling in the holes. The cemetery on the road from the airport is a sprawling mass of upturned earth, each fresh grave marked out from the surrounding mud by a perimeter of red bricks. The flowers and bare wooden stick crosses jut out from the rough grazing pasture.