LEGISLATORS in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous Zanzibar and Pemba said on Thursday they want the twin Indian Ocean islands to be allowed to join the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), despite longstanding opposition from Tanzania’s federal government. Several members of Zanzibar House of Representatives (parliament) have expressed concern over federal opposition to the move, despite numerous […]
A WOMAN was killed and her six-year-old son was injured on Sunday after they stepped on an anti-personnel landmine near Burundi’s capital Bujumbura, witnesses said. “We heard a landmine explosion and then a little girl covered in blood arrived saying her mother and brother were lying on the floor and could not move,” said a […]
UGANDAN troops have overrun a camp of northern Ugandan rebels inside Sudan, killing 22 rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Ugandan military commander Brigadier Henry Tumukunde said on Sunday . Tumukunde said Ugandan troops crossed some 20 kilometres into Sudan on Wednesday and attacked a small LRA camp at the village of Lumarati. A cache […]
THE speaker of the state assembly in Kano, northern Nigeria, ousted by lawmakers this week because he lightens his skin, insisted on Saturday on his “right to bleach”. Ibrahim Abdullahi Gwarmani told a daily newspaper: “I know the Koran very well and my bleaching should be viewed as my personal liberty. It does not violate […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION This was Idi Amin with bells and whistles. Debora Patta’s Third Degree interview with Lieutenant General Andrew Masondo must go down both as a classic and a benchmark. This was hardball television interviewing the way it should be: uncompromising, to the point, gratifyingly obdurate. In about 15 bizarre and often hilarious minutes […]
Nigel Wilis The Madness of Adam and Eve: How Schizophrenia Shaped Humanity by David Horrobin (Bantam) David Horrobin’s central thesis is that the very genes which in combination predispose their holder to schzophrenia are responsible for the creativity of humankind. I must admit to a certain bias: the author is a friend of mine and […]
POLICE in northern Tanzania were holding 17 people on Wednesday and had seized nine tonnes of marijuana, state-owned radio Tanzania reported on Wednesday. Quoting regional police commander Paul Ntobi in Mara, the radio said that the suspects were arrested in four villages, following a swoop launched after a tip-off by local citizens. Ntobi said some […]
Lauren Shantall food Our tummies are global gourmets, burbling loudly in favour of a worldly identity. We don’t realise how much the myth of a national character is corroded by our own digestive enzymes, or how the notion of “Rainbow cuisine” colours our palates in far more languages than a mere 11. For in any […]
SUDANESE Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail tried to reassure Canada’s Talisman oil company on Thursday, saying his government appreciates its efforts in oil operations and services to people around the oilfields, in remarks to the press. He said the government had not received official word from Talisman that it was planning to sell its shares in […]
Paul van Eeden in San Diego There can be no doubt that the United States faces a serious deflationary threat. More than $4-trillion has been lost in the stock market and, regardless of how you spin the numbers, that money is gone. Even though Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan has been inflating the money supply […]
TWENTY years after his violent death at the hands of Islamic extremists for making peace with Israel, former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s life is being revived on cinema screens across the country. “The Days of Sadat,” which follows his evolution from revolutionary to president of the republic, opens this week to Egyptian audiences who five […]
Reality TV is controversial, lucrative and very popular. Sylvie Kerviel examines a cultural phenomenon In 1999 the Dutch “reality television” show Big Brother, in which a group of contestants was isolated from the rest of the world and kept under 24-hour surveillance, was an instant hit. It was so successful that it immediately spawned similar […]
Cape Town | Friday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday a government minister will meet with the main shareholder in South African Airways to settle a row, which analysts see as a threat to the country’s privatization programme. Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe will meet on Saturday with the board of Transnet, […]
Harry Viljoen finally admits Montgomery is a flop as the Boks’ on-field general Andy Capostagno It would be easier to believe Springbok coach Harry Viljoen’s assertion that he is building for the 2003 World Cup if he had not made five changes to the starting line-up for the second Test against France in Durban on […]
BELINDA BERESFORD, Johannesburg | Friday THE cost of curbing the worldwide HIV/Aids epidemic in lower-income countries will soar almost fivefold by 2005, reaching an estimated $9,2-billion, compared to current expenditure on the disease of about $1,8-billion. This compares with the estimated $20-billion a year that the United States alone spends on Aids domestically. This forecast […]
This one-time glamour stock has fallen from R22 to R1. But is it a fundamentally sound business and is it offering value at these levels? Belinda Anderson Nicolaas Vlok, the CEO of Idion, has successfully managed to turn what was once a family business into a global software group. The catalyst was the purchase of […]
NEXT month’s Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in the Zambian capital of Lusaka will focus on the continent’s economic challenges, a Zambian official said Wednesday. “This summit will not strive to settle wars of liberation” but would herald a “new era where economic problems will be taken up,” Sikota Wina, an emissary of Zambian […]
Joel Avni ROCKS OF AGES: SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN THE FULLNESS OF LIFE by Stephen Jay Gould (Jonathan Cape) THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT by Richard PFeynman (Penguin) Religion and science seem to have dominated intellectual discourse for centuries. Ironic, isn’t it, that two of humanity’s main intellectual systems come up with such contradictory […]
NIGERIAN nurses on Wednesday threatened to go on strike next week to protest what they called government preferential treatment of doctors. Their representative, Nwogu Nwogu, said that the government has for too long paid attention to doctors at the expense of other health workers, and nurses will go on strike from Monday to protest this […]
Mboniso Sigonyela The Reserve Bank’s interest-rate surprise will provide a further fillip to buoyant house prices especially in Gauteng. This is good news for owners as houses are in most cases an individual’s biggest asset. But property economist Erwin Rode warns buyers to be careful of an interest-rate trap. “Most people will rush into the […]
ANTONY BARNETT and STEFAANS BRMMER, Johannesburg | Friday FOR thousands of years, members of Southern Africa’s Kung tribe have eaten the Hoodia cactus to stave off hunger and thirst on long hunting trips. The Kung people – a subdivision of the San – used to cut off a stem of the cactus about the size […]
Deon Potgieter boxing As the only boxing world champion in South Africa holding one of the “big three” sanctioning bodies’ world titles, Lehlohonolo “Hands of Stone” Ledwaba carries a lot of responsibility on his shoulders this weekend. He makes the sixth defence of his International Boxing Federation junior-featherweight title as the main supporting bout to […]
FORTY police and thirty demonstrators were slightly hurt on Wednesday night in clashes during a protest by young members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority outside the Coptic cathedral in Cairo, police said. Coptic youth have been protesting since Sunday over the newspaper publication of a graphic story about a defrocked monk’s alleged sexual affairs in […]
Tim Wood american notes AMail & Guardian letter-page critic believes that electricity deregulation caused California’s energy crisis and is an example of why it should be avoided when it comes to Eskom. It’s a poor deduction that relies on less than half the facts. California is in a mess because of the confluence of dozens […]
John Aizlewood CD OFTHEWEEK As Freaky Girl settles into its jogging groove, Orville “Shaggy” Burrell growls over The Kraft’s Stakhanovite vocal legwork and lets slip a chuckle. In an instant, its good-natured lasciviousness encapsulates the unlikely but undisputed king of reggae. Shaggy’s shtick on Hot Shot (MCA) is straightforward but appealing. His love songs girl […]
LAWMAKERS on Wednesday voted to oust the speaker of the state parliament in Kano, Nigeria, for an alleged “dictatorial” manner, poor time-keeping, and lightening his skin. The Kano State house of assembly unanimously voted to impeach Ibrahim Abdullahi Gwarmai after weeks of complaints over his attitude and behaviour, said an aggrieved lawmaker, Hamisu Ibrahim. Gwarmai, […]
whipping boy This year’s Durban July could be substantially affected by a high court ruling long before the gates swing open at Greyville on July 7. Top trainer Mike de Kock has threatened to seek relief from the court, contending that the David Ferraris-trained Celtic Grove has been set to carry too light a weight […]
He is at his lowest ebb for a decade and his French Open campaign was a disaster. Jim White talks to the once invincible American embarking on his last realistic attempt at a Wimbledon title Sitting up in the stands surrounding the main court at Queen’s Club in west London, Pete Sampras is watching a […]
DOZENS of Islamic art experts are urging Cairo to wake up to the “alarming” threat that shoddy restoration work is posing to numerous buildings dating back to the days of the Thousand and One Nights. In a letter to Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak last month, the experts highlighted monuments under renovation by nine local […]
Neal Collins Ian Wright will lead a 16-strong squad of England veterans to South Africa later this month as Britain pitches in to help the victims of the Ellis Park disaster. The team will play a charity match at King’s Park rugby stadium in Durban on June 28 with the proceeds going to the families […]
It’s been a time of guts baring for Afrikaans theatre, but though Breyten Breytenbach has failed, Pieter Fourie has triumphed Guy Willoughby Behold the guilt-tinged, rudderless state of the Afrikaner psyche at the beginning of the 21st century. This month it has come under scrutiny in two oddly undramatic new plays by venerable Afrikaans playwrights. […]
Shirley Kemp Recent changes to Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) Standard All Country World Index (ACWI) have resulted in the formation of a new “provisional” ACWI Index. Fifty percent of the new index will be phased in during November, with the rest to be implemented in May. The implications for emerging markets are negative on […]