No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Blood service agrees to study of gay population

The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) has confirmed that gay people are still not permitted to donate blood — this after it agreed to a study of the South African gay population during a meeting held with gay and lesbian organisations last week. Until the study is completed, ”the status quo will remain”, the SANBS said.

No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Freeing your books

After almost four years in Perth, Australia, my stay was nearing its end and I had a problem. Being an avid second-hand book shopper, my collection was fairly impressive and I was well aware that exorbitant shipping costs were going to restrict the number of parcels I could send home.

No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Wendell Sailor embarassed over ‘what went down’

Wallaby winger Wendell Sailor returned home in disgrace from the NSW Waratahs’ rugby tour of South Africa on Wednesday saying the nightclub incident that led to his early departure was a low point in his career. Sailor has already incurred a one-match ban and a fine from team authorities after he reportedly pushed a man to the ground outside a Cape Town nightclub.

No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Provocative T-shirt show banned in Poland

A university in Poland has banned an exhibition of T-shirts bearing slogans such as "I didn’t cry when the Pope died" and "I’ve got Aids," saying the show was too provocative, press reports said on Tuesday. "The texts printed on the T-shirts could have offended the feelings and beliefs of many people," said Wieslaw Kaminski, president of UMCS University.

No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Nigeria hunts ‘human shield’ oil hostages

Nigerian authorities hunted for nine foreign workers being held as ”human shields” by rebel fighters on Tuesday as the crisis in Africa’s biggest oil industry forced world oil prices up sharply. The nine oilmen were seized on Saturday by separatist guerrillas during an attack on the energy giant Shell’s Forcados oil terminal.

No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Nigerian hostage-takers call for mediation

Militants holding nine foreign oil-worker hostages called on Tuesday for independent negotiators to mediate among the hostage-takers and a Nigerian federal government they deem illegitimate. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said there have been no negotiations so far for the liberation of the hostages taken on Saturday.

No image available
/ 21 February 2006

Cholera stalks southern Sudan

The death toll from a suspected cholera outbreak in southern Sudan has risen to 68 but the fatality rate of the epidemic is on the decline, the United Nations’s health agency said on Tuesday. The outbreak has hit two major southern Sudanese towns, the administrative capital Juba and Yei near the border with Uganda.