No image available
/ 27 January 2006
A Zimbabwean court on Wednesday charged two twin brothers with indecent exposure for walking around in goatskin loincloths while claiming to be divine messengers preaching about creation. The men were arrested while walking with only codpieces in a busy shopping centre in the posh Harare suburb of Mount Pleasant.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
Amsterdam’s municipal council wants vandals to try wrecking prototypes of new subway trains to ensure that the material is "Amsterdam-idiot-proof", the daily <i>Het Parool</i> reported on Thursday. A councillor said it is not easy to find subway trains that can withstand the Amsterdam brand of hooligans.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
South Africa’s retail petrol price for all grades of petrol will rise by 14 cents per litre (c/l) from February 1, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 93 octane petrol in Gauteng to R5,63 a litre and to R5,40 a litre at the coast.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
A Hungarian hang glider who spent an uncomfortable night dangling from the branches of a 12-metre tree was on Friday rescued unharmed by emergency services, police said. The 42-year-old had been competing in an international hang gliding competition in the southeastern state of Victoria when he crashed into trees on Thursday.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
The frontman of United States rock band Nine Inch Nails has become the latest celebrity to speak out against Chinese cruelty towards cats and dogs, through an animal rights video launched on Friday. "Every year, millions of cats and dogs are killed for their fur," said Trent Reznor said.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
Indian newspapers hit out on Friday at the United States envoy to New Delhi, who warned a landmark nuclear deal could be scuppered if India votes against referring Iran’s nuclear programme to the United Nations Security Council. <i>The Hindu</i> newspaper said US ambassador David Mulford had "outrageously crossed the line of diplomatic propriety".
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
The diplomatic "quartet" seeking Middle East peace on Thursday urged the militant group Hamas, shock winners in the Palestinian elections, to renounce violence and accept Israel’s right to exist. Without naming Hamas, the quartet reiterated its view "that there is a fundamental contradiction between armed group and militia activities and the building of a democratic state.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
In his masterful treatise on democracy, <i>The Future of Freedom</i>, Fareed Zakaria of <i>Newsweek</i> writes: "The ‘Western model of government’ is best symbolised not by the mass plebiscite but the impartial judge." Impartial judges, independent public institutions, a free press — all these, Zakaria argues, are the best guardians of democracy.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
The story of the British diplomats caught using a transceiver hidden inside a rock in Moscow as their dead-letter drop would not, in itself, make a novel. What we know is only the tip of the iceberg; the novel is the rest of the iceberg. Who were the diplomats collecting information from?
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
The trouble with writing anything about Cape Town is that a lengthy qualifying preamble is usually required, for the place is a vast cobweb of purple fiction and banal squalor that too easily seduces those who arrive there looking for meaning, or a samoosa, or meaning in a samoosa.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
Of all the African leaders celebrating the successful negotiation of their new-look union’s toughest diplomatic hurdle, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was the most joyful.This is hardly surprising, since his peers in the 53-nation African Union have once again let him off the hook.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
The <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s series on the axing of Travelgate whistle-blower Harry Charlton bears witness to the weakening of commitment to a key democratic institution. Since 1999, we have witnessed the steady undermining of Parliament as a watchdog and tribune of the people.
No image available
/ 27 January 2006
I was hoping that I would be able to avoid writing about the now scandalous R700 000 "Gravy Plane" holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates, taken recently by our highly regarded Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, her husband, the wife of a Cabinet minister and several of Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka’s own and her secretary’s children.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
South Africa doubled the amount of its foreign direct investment (FDI) into neighbouring Mozambique in 2005, retaining its position as the single largest foreign investor in the country, South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Thursday.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Thursday that a push by Chinese groups to acquire companies abroad was matched by a desire to attain international business standards. "Chinese companies are now looking more and more at global competition," Zhou told the World Economic Forum in Davos.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
A military court in Côte d’Ivoire has issued international arrest warrants for two top French military officers, including the former commander of French peacekeepers. The warrants were issued after an inquiry into an incident when clashes broke out in Abidjan between a French contingent and Ivorian demonstrators, several of whom were killed, on November 9, 2004.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono has disclosed that the country’s top military commander fears that worsening hunger could ignite a popular revolt against President Robert Mugabe’s government. Gono made the revelation when he presented his monetary policy review statement on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
South Africa’s producer price index (PPI) rose by 5,1% year-on-year in December from a 4,5% increase in November, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. The PPI was expected to have risen by 5,2% year-on-year, according to an I-Net Bridge survey of economists, with the range from 3,5% to 5,5%.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
Franz Seitz, one of Germany’s most prolific film producers, has died at the age of 84, his son said on Tuesday. Seitz produced about 80 films, including <i>The Tin Drum</i>, an adaptation of the novel by Nobel laureate Guenter Grass that in 1980 became the first German picture to win an Oscar for best foreign film.
No image available
/ 26 January 2006
South African trade union Solidarity on Wednesday launched an initiative aimed at addressing the lack of skills in South Africa’s labour market. The union’s general secretary, Flip Buys, addressed the launch of Sol-Tech, the union’s initiative that also aims to assist enterprises with the implementation of their skills-development programmes.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
Wish you could get Mozart on the phone? No problem — and you won’t even have to part with a coin to compose the call. Fifty bright red "Calling Mozart" booths went up around Vienna on Wednesday, two days before Austria celebrates the 250th anniversary of his birth.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing: the woman died half a millennium ago. The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc’h.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
Japanese police are investigating a 57-year-old fortune teller who has effectively started a harem and is living with 10 women, media reports said on Wednesday. The man has repeatedly married and divorced the women, all in their 20s or 30s, but they all live together in a house in Tokyo along with at least one child, the reports said.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
The worsening humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is making children more vulnerable to abuse, according to child rights NGOs.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono on Tuesday forecast the country’s inflation to hit 800% in March, but said the key rate would drop to 230% by year-end. Gono said inflationary pressures are expected to remain high in the crisis-hit Southern African nation.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
In one of France’s most exciting artistic discoveries of recent years, two paintings by the 16th century Italian artist Caravaggio have been found in a church in the central town of Loches. <i>Pilgrimage of Our Lord to Emmaus</i> and <i>Saint Thomas putting his finger on Christ’s wound</i> were discovered in 1999 under the organ loft in the church of Saint Anthony.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will consider the personal circumstances of individuals it plans to prosecute for not applying for, or being refused, amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said this is normal procedure when prosecutions are taking place.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
An International Monetary Fund delegation is due to meet Zimbabwe’s finance minister on Wednesday a day after the central bank released a report blaming the country’s economic crisis on sanctions imposed by the West. A five-member IMF team arrived in Harare on Tuesday to assess the country’s economic health after it narrowly escaped expulsion in September last year.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
London-listed life assurer Old Mutual plc has received acceptances for 71,6% of Swedish insurer Skandia’s shares. Old Mutual is offering R38-billion for the Swedish insurer. The company said on Wednesday that acceptances of its offer received by January 23 have now been validated
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target, rose by 4% year-on-year in December after increasing by 3,7% in November, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
More than 60 Indonesians screamed anti-graft slogans at the top of their lungs in a contest aimed at encouraging the public to speak out against rampant corruption. The loudest yell clocked in at 113,2 decibels — roughly as loud as a chainsaw — and the screamer snared two million rupiah ($200) in prize money.
No image available
/ 24 January 2006
Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday called on the media to be responsible and promote traditional marriage and family life. And he reminded parents, the news media and entertainment industries of their responsibility towards children, "through presenting edifying models of human life and love".