Staff Reporter

Aids has hit sub-Saharan Africa so badly that the disease will cast a shadow over generations to come, even in countries that succeed in the battle against it, the United Nations warned on Tuesday. Africans account for about 25,4-million of the 39,4-million people around the world who have either the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or Aids.

About 20 African heads of state and government began a summit meeting in Algiers on Tuesday to review the continent’s homespun development plan Nepad, which seeks to boost growth in Africa in exchange for good governance. Launched amid great fanfare in 2001, Nepad aims to lift the continent out of poverty by attracting investment to end dependence on aid.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) on Monday tabled its comments and understanding of ministerial determinations in the telecoms sector and announced the schedule to be followed ahead of February 1. This comes as a result of Icasa’s two-day colloquium, which sought to engage the telecommunications sector on the scope of the determinations by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.

George W Bush draped his pro-rich, pro-military, pro-Halliburton and profoundly un-American post-9/11 budget in the American flag. He threw the book of compassionate neo-conservatism at Congress with distracting stars and stripes covers. Now our compassionate neo-colonialist, RW Johnson, has swaddled his own book in our South African flag, writes Ronald Suresh Roberts.

War, they say, is 95% boredom and 5% terror, and for the men of the Black Watch, even the latter is beginning to feel routine. Nearly three weeks since the Scottish regiment arrived at Camp Dogwood in Iraq, rockets and mortars have fallen inside their bleak and uncomfortable base almost every day.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125890">US, Iraqi forces raid mosque</a>

A breakthrough deal between Iran and the European Union aimed at defusing an international crisis over Tehran’s alleged nuclear ambitions was thrown into uncertainty on Friday night when diplomats said Iran is rushing to process feed material for the manufacture of bomb-grade uranium.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125762">Iran denies secret nuclear site</a>

Iraqi forces, backed by United States soldiers, stormed one of the major Sunni Muslim mosques in Baghdad after Friday prayers, opening fire and killing at least three people, witnesses said. Another raid overnight at a hospital allegedly used by insurgents in Mosul led to three arrests, the military said.

The African National Congress has yet to decide on the fate of senior MPs, including chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, who were last week found guilty of failing to disclose their interests to Parliament. Last year, the ANC’s national executive committee warned its public representatives in national, provincial and local government that "failure to adhere to ethics codes will result in internal disciplinary procedures in terms of the constitution of the ANC".

Having turned the screws on disparate elements in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, South African mediators know about applying pressure.
The players in Côte d’Ivoire — who have made a pig’s ear out of a carefully crafted French peace deal and a hash of an African follow-up pact — are about to learn this. On Saturday President Thabo Mbeki will see Guillame Soro of the New Forces rebel movement in Côte d’Ivoire.

The 10th anniversary of democracy is an important symbolic milestone for all South Africans, an opportunity to take stock, evaluate the past decade’s gains and setbacks, and plan for the next. On the eve of the Democratic Alliance’s congress in Durban this weekend, its leaders look at the future of the party and its challenges as the opposition, while a critic slams one of Tony Leon’s gurus.

Towards the end of his life the American anthropologist and author, Robert Ardrey, retired to Kalk Bay. I was to get to know him for a few brief weeks. In a conversation in January 1980, he spoke with enthusiasm about “some guy up in Zululand who is saying that crocodiles have maternal instincts. I was able to tell Ardrey that the “guy in Zululand’s" name was Tony Pooley and that he was a good friend.

South Africa’s film industry has embarked on a multimillion-rand marketing campaign to help consumers understand that supporting piracy is supporting crime. The campaign breaks at a time when the film industry estimates that as much as 50% of all DVDs in South Africa are illegal, pirated copies.

A police captain and two inspectors asked the Johannesburg Regional Court on Wednesday for bail as they face 14 charges including theft, aggravated assault and defeating the ends of justice — involving about R13-million. The men allegedly beat up suspects and stole money and goods recovered following arrests.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125703">Criticism after police car is hijacked</a>

South African retailer Mr Price on Wednesday reported a 31% increase in headline earnings per share to 33,2 cents for the six months ended September 30, from 25,3 cents a year earlier. The group reported an interim dividend of 13,2 cents — up 91% on the previous 6,9 cents.

Zimbabwe’s Parliament has rejected an adverse report on its own electoral reforms, despite the report having been written by a parliamentary committee. Heated debate between the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change this week saw the report being thrown out by 75 votes to 37.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=19686">Zimbabwe refugees may be sent back</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125651">Zuma: SA does not take sides in Zim</a>

When Schabir Shaik heard that his accountant was leaving Nkobi Holdings he stopped her final salary, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday. Former Nkobi accountant Ceila Bester, who is being cross-examined in the fraud and corruption trial against Shaik, told the court she had resigned because she was unhappy with the way in which Nkobi did its books, and in particular the write-off
of various accounts.

The family of Margaret Hassan on Tuesday night accepted that the aid worker taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents a month ago had probably been murdered, after analysis of a video which showed a masked gunman shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125665">’We believe she has been murdered'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125660">US, Iraqi troops target Mosul</a>

South Africa’s educational system has to deal with the legacy of apartheid. Many poorer, mainly black, households do not have access to schools with functioning maths and science departments. Centre for Development and Enterprise research shows that almost one-fifth of secondary schools do not offer senior certificate maths and science at all, while a third of the schools that do achieve pass rates between nought and 19%.