Shrien Dewani’s lawyers say he should not be sent to SA as he is mentally ill, would be harmed in prison — and because there is no free press here.
Ivorian leader and former president Laurent Gbagbo wanted to use the South African embassy in Abidjan as a possible venue to negotiate his exit.
Anton Harber, co-founder of <i>The Weekly Mail</i>, now the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>, answers 10 questions as the <i>M&G</i> celebrates 20 years.
"Today I might be reporting about a crime that happened across the street, and tomorrow about a car accident. I’ll report about everything that is newsworthy," says a Johannesburg security officer. Hold on a second — a security officer who reports on everyday news? What he will be doing is called "citizen journalism", and everyone can take part in it.
Kalay Maistry (33) is the newly appointed Southern Africa correspondent for al-Jazeera International, the new 24-hour English-language news channel.
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/ 2 December 2005
Seven major conservation and wildlife NGOs in South Africa say culling elephants in the Kruger National Park must be considered. A report from the South African National Parks board in July this year proposed culling between 5 000 and 7 000 elephants, but several wildlife groups have opposed the proposal.
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/ 29 November 2005
Broadband internet access, which finally made an impact on South Africa this year with the first 147 000 users settling into high-speed online lives, will almost double in usage in 2006 to 277 000 users. This is one of the key findings of <i>Broadband in South Africa 2005</i>, a new research report from World Wide Worx.
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/ 16 November 2005
Mobile-services company Exactmobile on Wednesday became the first to launch video ringtones and voice messaging via multimedia messaging service (MMS) in South Africa. Exactmobile has licensed software that enables it to convert music videos into a mobile format.
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/ 11 November 2005
A new combination therapy comprising only three pills cures patients of malaria once and for all in one day, its Belgian manufacturer said on Friday. The new therapy has been developed by Belgian company Dafra Pharma and will be launched on the African market next year.
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/ 10 November 2005
An e-mail doing the rounds in South Africa warns ATM users that organised criminals are installing equipment on the machines to steal both the ATM card number and its PIN. The scam involves a square piece of equipment that is placed in front of the existing bank-card slot.
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/ 10 November 2005
The Wikipedia online encyclopedia is often celebrated for its uniqueness: every internet user can create new articles and edit entries. Wikipedia’s popularity is shown by the fact that it records 1 000 page views per second, with about 100 servers to handle the traffic. However, the quality of entries is uneven; sometimes entries are even factually incorrect.
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/ 2 November 2005
For the third time in the past three years of its existence, South African online bank 20twenty is set to get a new owner. Standard Chartered announced in an e-mail to its clients on Tuesday that it plans to sell the online banking business. Standard Chartered is one of the United Kingdom’s leading banks in the developing world.
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/ 30 October 2005
South Africa’s divorced fathers may need to start ironing their favourite superhero costumes and prepare for a headline-grabbing stunt. The South African chapter of Fathers 4 Justice, an international civil rights movement fighting for children to have equal access to both parents after a divorce, is planning to execute high-profile stunts at least once a month.
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/ 14 October 2005
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>In its weekly online newsletter on Friday, the African National Congress has attacked an editorial piece in the <i>Financial Mail</i> that criticised the ANC’s support for Zuma in the week that Zuma appeared on corruption charges in the Durban Magistrate’s Court.
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/ 14 October 2005
More than 30 000 South Africans have signed a petition on a website called <i>Stop the Bill</i> against a draft law to reform the Road Accident Fund (RAF). Hein Kaiser, one of the organisers of the petition, says "compensation is now limited and the RAF is taking away compensation for people with minor injuries".
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/ 29 September 2005
American Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel (24) is an international electronic-sports champion — in other words, a cyber-athlete.
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/ 8 September 2005
Muslims in the Middle East and Malaysia can now rely on their cellphones at prayer time. The Ilkone i800 includes the complete Qur’an, points the way to Mecca and has a prayer alarm and Ramadan calendar. The smart-looking phone has English and Arabic language options.
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/ 1 September 2005
Karin Eloff (32) is the new editor of <i>Loslyf</i>. She appeared seminaked on the cover of the September issue.
After 47 days on a hunger strike, Iranians Azita Aslami and Mohammad Mehdi Neshat may finally get what they want: a residence permit to stay in The Netherlands. The Dutch government says Iran is a safe country, but Aslami and Neshat don’t agree. On June 30, eight Iranian asylum seekers had embarked on a hunger strike to protest the Dutch asylum-seeking procedure.
The Media Monitoring Project (MMP) is again challenging the South African media on their coverage of National Women’s Day. For the past six years, the MMP has monitored media coverage during the period around National Women’s Day. Last year’s challenge was won by the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.