The United States Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, received a cool reception in Moscow on Monday when he attempted to reassure the Russian Federation over the US’s controversial missile defence plans in eastern Europe. Gates met the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and Russia’s Defence Minister, Anatoly Serdyukov.
The prospect of President Thabo Mbeki staying on as African National Congress (ANC) head would harm the country, official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Monday. At a farewell meeting in Port Elizabeth the DA leader said an anointed presidential successor would become a ”puppet president owing his or her position to Mbeki”.
The African National Congress (ANC) provincial executive committee in the Free State on Monday dismissed a failed court challenge to its leadership as ”counter-revolutionary”. ”The matter referred to the court has never been a legal matter but has always been a political matter,” said Free State ANC deputy chairperson Pat Matosa.
President Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress deputy president, and other top ANC leaders are expected to meet the party’s KwaZulu-Natal leadership on Monday. This followed newspaper reports that some ANC leaders in KwaZulu-Natal were plotting to make the province a no-go area for the president.
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s right-wing former interior minister, on Sunday night stormed to one of the most impressive first-round victories in French presidential history, making him favourite to beat the socialist Ségolène Royal to the Elysée in a fortnight’s time.
It is 3.30pm and a dozen little boys in long shorts, blue check shirts and ties are sitting around tables in a London schoolroom that is decked out with typical infant-class paraphernalia — alphabet charts, winter-themed paintings, and posters of healthy foodstuffs. On the teacher’s instruction, the four-year-olds close their eyes, then open them on command to describe a scene drawn on the back of a paper plate.
Vehicle insurance premiums have been soaring by 10% to 20% a year, adding to the cost of owning a car. Apart from the usual suspects — crime and the high cost of spare parts — reckless driving is becoming a major factor. But should cautious drivers be picking up the tab for the lunatics out there?
Neoconservatives care about the poor. This proposition may not be entirely ludicrous: that poverty, underdevelopment and failed states breed jihadists with empty bellies and fiery eyes (or vice versa) is one of those claims with all the force of triteness working in its favour. Whether it is strictly true is a more complicated question.
The state of the African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng as well as three key challenges facing the province — education, health and crime — will be discussed at the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting in Germiston on Saturday. PEC spokesperson Ignatius Jacobs said President Thabo Mbeki had already received its report.
On a stage facing a sea of tricolour flags stood a small figure in a pinstriped suit hailed as the greatest orator in France. Slicing the air with both hands and jabbing his finger, he waved his arms like an orchestra conductor, whipping the crowd into a frenzy as he promised a France that would no longer hate itself.