Mathematical evidence, too complex ever to be fully checked by a human, is now accepted as valid, writes Keith Devlin What exactly is a mathematical proof? This thorny question was raised again last month when an American mathematician announced a solution to a 400-year-old problem posed by the astronomer Johannes Kepler. Thomas Hales of the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Friday 8.00pm. THE United Nations Children’s Fund has urged Sierra Leone’s government to disarm the country’s legion of child warriors and give amnesty to rebel children captured in battle. Speaking to journalists during a two-day visit, Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy said she was ”troubled” after meeting a contingent of child […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.15pm. SOUTH African fighter planes are violating Mozambican air space in the southern Gaza province, the Mozambican Interior Minister said on Friday. Almerinho Manhenje told state radio his trip to the area was prompted by reports of frequent incursions into the country’s airspace by South African fighter jets. ”We have […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.20pm. SCUFFLES between police and workers at Edgars’ Kempton Park branch on Thursday marked the fourth day of a strike by the clothing group’s workers. South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union assistant secretary-general Herbert Mkhize accused white policemen of complicity with Edgars management: “White policemen at the branch […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Arusha | Thursday 7.30pm. THE former mayor of the Rwandan Taba commune during the 1994 genocide has appealed his conviction of crimes against humanity by the Untited Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, sitting in Arusha, Tanzania. The UN tribunal convicted 45-year-old Jean-Paul Akayesu of nine counts of genocide and crimes against humanity, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.45am. THE familiar components of a market bloodbath were all in place on Thursday morning, and local indices delivered. The Dow lost 237 points on Wednesday night, and Asian markets were also down. Further, the International Monetary Fund’s recently released World Economic Outlook halved its worldwide growth forecasts, and projected […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 10.00pm. A REFUGEE system that considers people’s rights is the aim of the Refugees Bill tabled in Parliament on Thursday. The draft legislation sets out new ways for dealing with refugees in line with United Nations standards and under the supervision of an independent refugee affairs committee. It proposes […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday 6.00pm. THE African National Congress has formally suspended two more of its senior provincial leaders in Mpumalanga after weeks of persistent press reports about their complicity in irregularities. Provincial chairman and Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa said at a special conference on Thursday that the party decided to suspend finance MEC […]

DUDUZILE NKOMO, Harare | Wednesday 9.00pm. Duduzile Nkomo CONTROVERSIAL Zimbabwean member of Parliament Dzikamayi Mavhaire has repeated his call for President Robert Mugabe to step down. Mugabe has been in power for 18 years, since the country attained self-rule in 1980. Mavhaire, introducing a motion in Parliament which called on the government to undertake a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 7.30pm. LOCAL shares were lifted off their lows by some last minute unit trust buying today, but overall market sentiment was dragged down by disappointment over the direction of US markets. At the close, the JSE’s all-share index had lost 1.84%, the industrial index had fallen 1.65%, the financial index […]