In Salman Rushdie’s uneasy new novel, 55-year-old Malik Solanka, "retired historian of ideas, irascible dollmaker", takes refuge in New York after leaving his wife and three-year-old son in London. The United States for once, though, is not seen primarily as a place of second chances, of beginning again, even if in the course of the book Solanka is re-energised and reconciled to his past.
BARRY STREEK, Cape Town | Friday THE British government is “very concerned” about the decision by the African National Congress majority in Parliament’s safety and security committee to ban foreign investment in South Africa’s private security industry, saying it contravenes the 1998 agreement between the two countries to promote trade and investment. The proposed insertion […]
HOWARD BARRELL, JASPREET KINDRA, Johannesburg | Friday THE HIV/Aids epidemic has taken on “shattering dimensions” and now accounts for one-in-four of all deaths, according to the Medical Research Council’s (MRC) report into the virus that has been suppressed by the government. The report, in the opinion of many the most authoritative of its kind into […]
THE rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has signed an agreement here agreeing to a total ban on anti-personnel landmines throughout territories under its control. The pledge was signed between Nhial Deng Nhial, president of the movement’s foreign affairs commission, in the presence of Geneva canton chancellor Robert Hensler. The southern Sudanese rebel group has […]
At least seven people have reportedly died of rabies after being bitten by large rodents in the town of Harardhere (4.39N 47.51E), in central Somalia, the BBC reported on Thursday. The attacks of the rodents, which reportedly look like large rats, started 40 days ago, when an 80 year-old woman was attacked and later died. […]
FRED ESBEND, Port Elizabeth | Friday SHORTLY after being voted South Africa’s top mayor in a survey by a business magazine, Port Elizabeth mayor Nceba Faku’s reputation has been tarnished by allegations that he misused council funds for his personal ends. The Democratic Alliance this week revealed a staggering R87 000 discretionary fund splurge in […]
RESIDENTS in a town in southern Central African Republic brandished sticks this week to beat off dogs, after two people died of rabies after being fatally bitten, national radio reported on Thursday. “With a number of dogs spreading the disease, the local population has been forced to move around with sticks to avoid being bitten […]
Mail & Guardian reporters, Johannesburg | Friday AS Tony Yengeni became the second African National Congress parliamentary casualty of the arms deal, speculation mounted this week that he could be a strategic sacrifice whose arrest will protect more influential players. Former defence minister Joe Modise and army procurement chief Chippy Shaik top the list of […]
A six-year-old boy was beaten to death and his body then burnt while on his way to a shop at Sundumbili in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday night, police said on Friday. Captain Vishnu Naidoo said Thandokwakhe Manguele was sent to the shop by his grandmother when a 22-year-old man allegedly beat him with a stick […]
AN 82-year-old man is in a critical condition in hospital after he and his elderly sister were overpowered and assaulted by three gunmen during a robbery on their farm outside Zeerust on Sunday night. Inspector Erica Roos said the men hit the siblings and demanded liquor and money before fleeing from the farm Koedoesfontein. ”The […]