United States soldiers and airmen fighting in Iraq are to receive a new weapon in their arsenal: a pack of playing cards to help them identify ancient ruins before creating new ones. The Pentagon’s move, is part of a belated scheme to prevent further war damage to the country’s 11 000 archaeological sites.
China has overtaken the United States as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world’s politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.
The ECD Development Awards reward individuals and organisations within the ECD sector. Winners were announced in four categories: practitioner of the year, home-based centre of the year, community-based centre of the year and resources and training organisation of the year.
My experience, each morning, may not be unlike yours. We pick up our newspapers or turn on the TV — in New York, Lagos or Jakarta — and peruse a daily digest of human suffering. Lebanon. Darfur. Somalia. Of course, as secretary general of the United Nations, I at least am in a position to try to do something about these tragedies. And I do, every day, writes Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.
Colombian officials have found the remains of 760 victims killed by right-wing paramilitary groups, and have leads on another 4 000 bodies, a state prosecutor said, according to news reports on Tuesday. Prosecutor Luis Gonzalez said that the bodies were found with the help of information supplied by former paramilitary leaders.
South African banks expect further demands for increased transparency, similar to those overseas, on pricing and product comparisons, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey on banking in South Africa — <i>Strategic and Emerging Issues in South African Banking</i> — shows.
Recklessly overtaking other cars can be a sin, the Vatican said in a warning to drivers on Tuesday advising motorists to make the sign of the cross before hitting the road. "Overtaking dangerously can be a sin," said Cardinal Renato Martino as he presented recommendations put together by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People.
A senior Hamas leader in Gaza on Monday night said the movement was hoping to win the imminent release of the kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston. Mahmoud al-Zahar, a hardliner within the Hamas movement, said there was a fresh effort under way to negotiate for Johnston’s release.
Internet usage in South Africa is skyrocketing. The number of active South African browsers on the web has grown by 121% from 1,8-million in May 2005 to 3,9-million in May this year. In the same period, the number of page impressions grew by 129% from 91-million to 207-million.
Tony Blair on Monday strongly defended intervening in Iraq for the final time as British prime minister before Parliament’s top scrutiny body. In a robust farewell performance, Blair insisted ordinary Muslims craved democracy, saying that Islamist terrorists rather than the West were their worst enemy.
A 111-year-old Japanese engineer born at the end of the century before last was awarded official recognition on Monday as the world’s newest oldest man, and joked he was sorry for still being alive. Tomoji Tanabe, a teetotaller who has repeatedly said that avoiding alcohol was a secret of his longevity, was given a certificate from the <i>Guinness Book of World Records</i>.
Greece is mounting a nationwide effort to remove "eye candy" billboards from roadsides, amid growing evidence that images of women wearing not very much contribute to Europe’s worst road accident figures. With 15 000 hoardings in the capital alone, drivers are distracted by "unacceptable levels of eye candy".
Of late, there has been much talk of the "digital divide" separating Africa and the industrialised world. African governments and institutions have committed large sums of money to the problem and hardly a week passes when we do not hear of some private donation of computers to a community, writes Elinor Sisulu.
India is looking to increase its economic and diplomatic visibility in Africa and elsewhere once again – and the West, other Asian competitors and particularly African leadership, need to wake up and take stock of what this means. India’s non-oil trade with West Africa stands at more than $3-billion and is rising rapidly, accounting for 1,2% of India’s world trade.
Everything we have been told about the Olympic legacy turns out to be bunkum. The games are supposed to encourage us to play sport; they are meant to produce resounding economic benefits and help the poor. It’s all untrue. As the evictions in London begin, a new report shows that the only certain Olympic legacy is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
The Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund is probably one of the most ambitious business ventures yet. For its chief executive, Tshepo Mahloele, it’s just common sense. Infrastructure makes economic success possible, but in Africa little capital is available to build infrastructure. The solution, as he sees it, is to use African savings to invest in projects across the continent.
The ambition of Manuel Santos Uribelarrea is written in big black letters on the side of machines reaping the plains of South America: MSU. It is harvest time and the state-of-the-art behemoths bearing his initials have a mission to revolutionise agriculture, change the world’s eating habits and make their owner very, very wealthy.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the post-war reconstruction of the country. The disclosures come in a new television documentary about Blair’s decade in Downing Street.
One of the biggest drawbacks of web-based applications is that you can only use them when you are online — and very often you aren’t. But that could change. Google, Adobe and Microsoft are all working to make online applications available while you are offline, or vice versa.
Keorapetse Kgositsile’s foreword to Red on <i>Black: The Story of the South African Poster Movement</i> by Judy Seidman.
The Gossip lead singer Beth Ditto’s advice for women on how to deal with catcalls in the street.
Lynley Donnelly spoke to three local designers about their collections and how fashion can be a vehicle to help raise awareness of HIV/Aids at the the second annual Positive fundraising extravaganza.
Black economic embarrasment After 10 years of democracy and equality in my African South Africa, it’s almost tragic to note that I have far more opportunities than my white South African counterparts. Affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE) are just flashy labels for flat-out discrimination. Since some of us are clearly more equal than […]
Mbeki’s PR blunders President Thabo Mbeki finds himself in a whirlpool of controversy because of how he manages communications, especially media relations. He has been criticised for providing a self-serving view that stifles the public’s right to access to government information, discourages public debate, assaults those who have the audacity to criticise his views and […]
How can MDC mobilise? Yolande Taylor (Letters, June 8) gleefully follows the official South African line on Zimbabwe — that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is in disarray; its leadership is weak; that it seeks help from the West instead of building a constituency among Africans. And then the inevitable mantra: it should make […]
Mbeki a popular leader Mothusi Motlhabi (Letters, July 6) claims that Markinor surveys indicating popular support for President Thabo Mbeki seem little more than spin-doctoring. He overlooks the fact that the 2004 general and 2006 local elections indicated overwhelming popular support for Mbeki’s leadership of the country and the ANC. Whether we like it, he […]
‘As teachers, we pledge …’ If children have to recite the pledge, how about a pledge for education department officials and teachers? I suggest the following: “We, the national and provincial education departments of South Africa, recognising the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered and sacrificed for justice and freedom. “We will see […]
When it comes to the less obvious everyday things, how green is your life really?
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila wooed South African businesses on Friday, portraying his war-ravaged country as a risk-free environment that is ripe for investment. Kabila conceded security remained a concern in the east of the country but sought to assure a business audience in Cape Town that the situation was being dealt with.
Almost half of working-age men in Russia who die are killed by alcohol abuse, according to a new medical study which says the country’s males die in excessive numbers not just because they drink lots of vodka but because they also consume products containing alcohol, such as eau de cologne and antiseptics.
On the 30th of April this year, television talk-show person Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu said something so startlingly unfortunate that it was worth writing down. Her guest that afternoon was Patrick Holford, international bowel-whisperer, and as the curtain lifted, it seemed that for once Noeleen had come prepared; for there on her lap was Holford’s latest paperback treatise on the private life of starch.
Public servants who went on strike on June 1 risk losing the moral high ground with intimidation tactics that have diluted high levels of public sympathy.President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to turn down a 55% increase for government ministers, proposed by the Moseneke Commission on the remuneration of public officers, has removed a key dynamic from the dispute.