Staff Reporter

Tsjoe! It’s been a searing week for the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>, as we found ourselves in the eye of the South African storm over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The letters pages are alight with anger; our online forums clatter with fury.

Author Sven Hedlin was profoundly impressed by the people he found himself among. They were refugees in their own country, disinherited and robbed of their national pride by the Jewish agents of the United States and Britain, but their ancestors had once been the shining lights in a dark world.

At Christmas and on birthdays my wife and I give each other books. This last year we thought we would treat ourselves to just one big and expensive one. It was what affects to be the seventh edition of that eternal companion to anyone who is at all fascinated by the exuberant bird life of this country: <i>Roberts’ Birds of Southern Africa</i>.

Zimbabwe’s gold reserves are fast depleting and pushing hundreds of miners out of business, the Chamber of Mines said in a letter to the government obtained by Agence France-Presse on Thursday. "With more than two million operators out there, surface gold is fast running out," saids Jack Murehwa, president of the mining association.

Feuding leaders of Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on Tuesday momentarily forgot their differences to reject unanimously claims by South African President Thabo Mbeki that they had agreed on a new Constitution with the ruling Zanu-PF party two years ago.

The White House on Monday condemned the violent protests against the publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad and urged governments to take steps to lower tensions as demonstrations continued around the world over the cartoons published in European newspapers.

A top Hamas official says the militant group will not recognise Israel but will abide, for now, by past agreements Palestinian leaders made with the Jewish state. He has also lashed out at the more moderate Fatah party for refusing to participate in a national unity Palestinian government.

A "no smoking cannabis" sign put up in Amsterdam has proved so popular with souvenir hunters that authorities are now giving the chance for it to be bought legally. The sign in the De Baarsjes district has had to be replaced three times in a week, Rinze van Opstal of the district board said on Monday.

"Are we afraid of change? Absolutely not! We have always said we want to see a Transnet that is dynamic and growing. We have argued for and agreed with the approach of the government and management that puts Transnet at the centre of economic growth," writes Jane Barret.

In the heat of the strike, trade unions at Spoornet claim that more than 2 000 drivers are about to lose their jobs, but management claims that it intends to hire 800 train drivers and assistants. Unions this week told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> that Spoornet, Transnet’s rail subsidiary, has mooted the retrenchment of more than 2 000 workers.

Commentators reckon that next month’s local government elections are the most significant South Africa has ever seen. But what would you say to President Thabo Mbeki if he was standing on the other side of the braai, beer in hand? Would you have any questions for Tony Leon if you ran into him in a dark alley?

Economists were generally positive about President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation address at Parliament on Friday, with Colen Garrow, Economist at Brait, saying that the markets should respond positively. George Glynos, market analyst at ETM, said however that the the government should tread carefully on land reform.