Former South African president Nelson Mandela is to share a stage with Mick Jagger, U2 and a bevy of models in a charity concert in Barcelona.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Pretoria | Wednesday SOUTH African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin denied on Tuesday that the government deliberately misled the public about the cost of a multi-billion dollar strategic defence package. Speaking at a public hearing into alleged corruption into the $5.5-billion deal, Erwin defended an original cost estimation in 1998 that put the price […]
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 […]
Cape Town | Thursday A RULING by the New York Supreme Court allowing South Africa to use the Internet domain name southafrica.com sets a precedent “for other countries who want their name back,” Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said on Wednesday. The court on Monday dismissed an application for an interdict from Seattle-based internet company Virtual […]
THE Malawi parliament has passed a controversial bill which strips lawmakers of their seats if they defect to other parties or declare themselves independent, a parliamentary representative said on Wednesday. Roderick Mlonya said the bill, passed on Tuesday, was met with strong protest from the opposition Alliance For Democracy (AFORD). The bill stipulates that when […]
THE Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced Sunday a $7.3-million (8.5-million-euro) loan to Chad for educational projects. The loan will finance the construction and development of schools and a French-Arab bilingual training scheme for school teachers, the Jeddah-based bank said in a statement. The new loan raises to 69 million dollars the total funds granted by […]
AN Egyptian court sentenced four Egyptians to death on Tuesday for the gang rape of a woman who was five months pregnant. The armed assailants forced her husband to look on, a court official said. Barakat Hassan, 23, Hani Sabet, 22, Khaled Moslem, 22, and Harras Badie, 19, were sentenced in the southern Cairo suburb […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH Africa is revamping its immigration laws to make it easier for foreigners to work in the country, but employers will have to pay a special tax on their salaries in many cases. Elderly foreign nationals will also find it easier to retire in South Africa under the bill, […]
THE European Union has finally disbursed six million euros (seven million dollars) on Tuesday to finance part of Zambia’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections due late this year. The EU had initially withheld the money from the Zambian government on grounds that it was not happy with the government’s record. “Given the crucial importance of […]
THE South African military will try to recruit 10,000 youths a year on a voluntary basis, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told parliament on Tuesday after ruling out conscription. “Ensuring constant access to high quality personnel is a challenge for any defence force. Consequently we are recommending to the country the introduction of a service system,” […]
TWO youths were killed when fighting broke out after Islamic vigilantes sought to close a brothel operating in a town in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State, radio reported. The emir of Birnin Gwari, Zubairu Jibril, told the privately-owned Rima Radio here that the vigilantes entered the brothel on Sunday to close it down. Shortly afterwards, a […]
South Africa is to rename all schools named after apartheid figures, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Monday. Asmal told journalists the names of schools honouring apartheid leaders like D.F. Malan and Hendrick Verwoerd, former prime ministers who are considered architects of the racist system, gave offence to the majority of South Africans. “A name […]
BETWEEN 13 and 27 government soldiers were killed in an ambush by a group of armed Islamic militants in the Chlef region, 200 kilometres west of the capital Algiers, Algerian newspapers reported on Tuesday. The papers blamed a faction of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) for the ambush, which took place on Sunday, of a […]
A South African court on Monday sentenced a former building society manager to 1,620 years in prison for fraud involving more than $40-million. The Johannesburg High Court sentenced Vito Assante, 50, a former branch manager of the Natal Building Society, to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of 108 charges of issuing investor certificates worth R350-million […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday RESIDENTS of the remote South African fishing village of Cape Agulhas are calling on officials to solve an old geographical dispute — where do the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet? Cape Agulhas residents claim the oceans come together at their windswept bay, which is home to a few hundred […]
THE Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt reporters and humanitarian workers in Somalia from a nine-year-old arms embargo, to enable them to wear flak jackets and helmets. It adopted a resolution stating that the embargo, imposed in January 1992, “shall not apply to protective clothing, including flak jackets and military helmets… for their […]
THE rand weakened on Monday in late morning trade as the euro surrendered earlier gains against the dollar, but the rand was seen getting some technical support soon. The rand was last traded at R8,04 to the dollar, two cents weaker compared to late Friday after it had firmed to around R8 to the dollar […]
THE Nigerian government announced on Tuesday it has agreed to allow a Swedish ship, stranded at sea with 186 Liberian passengers aboard, to dock. The boat, the Alnar Stockholm, carrying 186 Liberians, including 79 children, left Benin waters on Monday after awaiting permission for a week to dock in Cotonou. Following the Abuja government’s announcement, […]
MANUEL MUANZA, Luanda | Wednesday ANGOLAN President Jose Eduardo dos Santos renewed his calls on Tuesday for rebel chief Jonas Savimbi to end his nation’s civil war, as army forces toppled a 10-year-old rebel stronghold. Dos Santos, who spoke while on a two-day trip to Brussels, said Savimbi “has not yet said whether he really […]
A STUTTGART court jailed a German engineer on Tuesday for two and a half years for illegally assisting Libya in building a chemical weapons plant. The court found the 59-year-old engineer, Roland Franz Berger, guilty of violating international sanctions levelled at Libya by the United Nations as well as chapters of German foreign commerce law. […]
Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) slapped down popular leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for her conduct towards President Thabo Mbeki, in a statement issued on Wednesday. The censure comes amid a public uproar over the conduct of Mbeki, who is also ANC president, for pushing Madikizela-Mandela away when she tried to kiss […]
LIBYA has withdrawn its troops from the Central African Republic (CAR) after helping to defeat a coup attempt there and to “restore legality,” the BBC monitoring service reported on Wednesday. Libya said it was leaving a “small group” of forces behind at the request of CAR President Felix Ange-Patasse, who had invited the troops in, […]
THE editor-in-chief of the pro-government Avenir newspaper in Kinshasa was arrested last week by security services and has been held in a dark cell for five days, the daily said on Monday. The Avenir said Joachim Diana Gikupa has been held by the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) for articles he has written. The newspaper, which […]
Pierre Ausseill, Bangui | Tuesday THE Central African Republic’s former military ruler Andre Kolingba, accused of trying to overthrow the government last month with the help of French mercenaries, is still at large with a price hanging over his head. Kolingba, who ruled from 1981 until 1993 elections won by Ange-Felix Patasse, was said to […]