Staff Reporter

Of all the things on the to-do list before the Democrats take control of the United States Congress next month, one item seemed to have escaped the attention of Congressman Silvestro Reyes: read something about the Middle East. Reyes, a Democrat from Texas, was chosen to chair the House intelligence committee.

The owner of the bookshop in the centre of the small Belgian town of Mouscron would be best advised to keep her head down for a while. For a few hours on Friday night, 29 of her friends thought they had won the best part of â,¬27-million (about R191-million) when their syndicate’s numbers came up in the EuroMillions jackpot draw.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will not step down at the expiry of his term in 2008 but will rule for an additional two years after three more provincial committees of his ruling Zanu-PF party resolved at the weekend to extend his term to 2010. Mugabe has not publicly commented on the moves by his party to extend his rule.

General Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean former dictator whose brutal regime cast a shadow over his country and the rest of the continent for more than three decades, died on Sunday at the age of 91. Police were quickly deployed across the city and residents in working-class districts erected barricades on Sunday night.

Japanese whalers are expected to clash with environmentalists in Antarctica over the next two months as separate fleets head south prepared to confront each other in some of the world’s most hostile seas. The pro- and anti-whalers on Sunday night appealed for the support of countries they hoped would back their views on whaling.

The battle for George W Bush’s ear began in earnest on Wednesday following publication of the Iraq Study Group’s report. The United States president’s instinct is to hang tough, gambling that "a last big push" will bring victory of sorts. "We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done," he said last week. Amid great uncertainty, one thing is sure: Bush does not do graceful exits.

In <i>White Writing</i>, JM Coetzee describes white South Africans as "no longer European, not yet African". Almost 20 years later, we may ask if white South Africans are any closer to Africanness. Can white South ­Africans be African? Frederik van Zyl ­Slabbert is suspicious of answers that define "African" along ethnic or racial lines, and rightly so, writes Jason van Niekerk.

Is it true that levels of personal violence remain unchecked in South Africa? Are they escalating? Or is it just that, by the law of averages, the possibility of violence against your person gets closer and closer until it is literally breathing down your neck?

Never in recent times have the jobs of coaches of Soweto giants Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs been under so much threat this early in the season. The fact that both could lose their jobs before the year is out is staggering. Amakhosi’s coach Ernst Middendorp even believes there is an internal club plot to oust him.

Folding banana leaves as big as beach towels, Emelie Andrianavisoa from Brickaville explains why she didn’t vote in Madagascar’s presidential election. "My name is incorrect on my ­voter’s card and I cannot check whether I am on the voters’ roll," she says. "They tell me there is a way of doing this, but I have not got the time to do it.

The painting hanging in his parents’ living room in Berlin is one of his dearest memories. Percy Henschel’s home was destroyed a long time ago and his mother killed by the Nazis, but the 74-year-old German is convinced that the work, a magnificent religious painting in oil by the 16th-century artist Lucas Cranach, still exists.

Original ideas seem to be thin on the ground. Politicians reuse their predecessors’ policies. Television schedules are packed with the same old reality shows and police procedurals. And in fashion, retro rules, with designers currently channelling Eighties naff. It seems there is a fine line between inspiration and imitation.

Zanu-PF’s succession battle — once confined behind closed doors — is fast becoming a public brawl being fought in the courts, reflecting the former liberation movement’s failure to handle the issue and giving President Robert Mugabe enough reason to hang on to power.

The European commission’s German vice-president, Günter Verheugen, was battling to save his reputation on Thursday after photographs emerged of him relaxing on the beach with his female chief of staff wearing just a baseball cap. Verheugen (62) has dismissed as "pure slander" allegations that he had been having a relationship with his chief of Cabinet, Petra Erler (48).

United Nations aid agencies launched their biggest appeal for funding to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories on Thursday, asking for $453-million for next year and warning of a weakening in the Palestinians’ ability to govern.

On the lawn of the South African presidency in 2003, US President George W Bush held out his arm to Thabo Mbeki and said: "This is our point man." When Mbeki meets Bush in Washington on Friday will he still warrant this sporting honorific from Bush? Does he still want it? Analysts say that neither leader has much choice.