Features

Ways to stop the bloodletting
DETAILS of measures announced on Wednesday by the international diamond industry to clamp down on the sale of gems used to fund wars in Africa: *Importing nations will only accept rough diamonds in sealed packages registered by authorities in exp...

Diamonds are a rebel's best friend
MOST diamond buyers think about cost and quality -- not bloody African wars. But the diamond industry has now thrown in the moral question: was a gem mined amid a brutal African conflict fuelled by sales of the shiny stones that stand for love --...

Promised grazing land still not delivered
By Mkhululi Titi STUTTERHEIM -- The importance of the red meat industry in the Eastern Cape is often overlooked. This was said by the Eastern Cape Emergent Red Meat Producers' Organisation provincial deputy chairman, Luyanda Ngoma, at the organi...

Mamase angry over sale of bulls
By Mkhululi Titi QUEENSTOWN -- Members of the Eastern Cape Emergent Red Meat Producers' Organisation and Agriculture and Land Affairs MEC Max Mamase expressed shock this week at the sale of 32 bulls being kept at the Dohne Research Station. "We ...

Scientists map genes of plant disease
FOR THE first time, scientists have mapped the genes of a plant disease, an advance that could lead to new approaches to fighting a bacterial scourge that ravages orange groves. "This is going to open up crop protection strategies the way genome ...

To finish is to win say equine athletes
By Vanessa Weyer THE FAURESMITH 200km endurance ride brought to the small Free State town a record number of equine enthusiasts this year. Over 250 athletes entered the gruelling race, which, according to the president of the South African End...

Carnivorous cow killed
GOBABIS, Namibia -- The owner of a cow which recently ate a newly-born goat kid has killed the animal, saying he could not come to terms with a herbivorous mammal that behaved in such a manner. He slaughtered the cow because he believed it was an...

A perfect white winter getaway
by SUE MORRELL CLIMBING Balloch Mountain near Barkly East is like walking through a natural gallery of sandstone sculptures. You are surrounded by giant configurations of weathered rocks -- some balanced boy scout-style on others, some pyramid-sh...

PW, FW again linked to murder plans
By Adrienne Carlisle MORE evidence is emerging from apartheid-era documentation that the State Security Council (SSC), staffed by top apartheid politicians and securocrats including former presidents PW Botha and FW de Klerk, may have discussed a...

From Superman to bionic man
SPACE AGE technology is turning Michael Johnson, athletics' Superman, into the Bionic Man. Now fans can log on to the Internet to get a detailed report on what happens to Johnson physically during a race, thanks to miniature sensors worn on his b...