Oscared: Clutching the little statuette were best actress Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich), best actor Russell Crowe (Gladiator), best supporting actor Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) and actress Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock). Best picture: Gladiator, and best foreign film: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
On the beat: The new Johannesburg Metro Police Department, with 1000 bobbies focusing on traffic control and crime prevention in high-crime areas, including the inner city.
Going back up: The petrol price, with an 18c/l increase for petrol and 6c/l for diesel to begin next week, when the price of paraffin drops by 40c/l.
Own goal: By Cape Town, as racist residents who complained about unruly soccer fans compelled the South African Football Association to bar the city from hosting Bafana Bafana matches until further notice.
A rocky road: For African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, whose acquisition of a luxury Mercedes-Benz 4×4 for several months without discernible payment while he was serving as head of the joint standing committee on defence has come under fire, as the car was manufactured by Daimler-Chrysler, whose aerospace division was among successful bidders in the R43-billion arms deal.
Died: South African Communist Party stalwart Sonia Bunting (78), in Cape Town; Polish cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski (42), in Vancouver; animation pioneer William Hanna (90), co-creator of the Tom and Jerry cartoon, in Hollywood.
Found dead: Jan Fedder (40), accused with his sister of incest and child abuse but out on bail, found hanged in a suspected suicide in his home in Delmas.
In court: Eight members of the Pietersburg-based Noordelikes rugby team in connection with the death of Tshepo Matloga (17) and assault on his friend, Kwena Molokwane, attacked as they were hunting on a farm outside Dendron. Matloga’s body has disappeared.
Murdered: Eleven hotel management students, with two wounded and two others kidnapped, at Uganda’s acclaimed Murchison Falls National Park, in an attack blamed on the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Burnt to death: At least 58 pupils, with 28 injured, at a high school at Machakos, Kenya, after a fire believed set by a disgruntled student destroyed a dormitory.
Arrested: Michael Mohapi (26), of Orange Farm, and charged with kidnap and indecent assault in connection with the disappearance for several days of a four-year-old Orlando West boy. The child was found outside a shop several kilometres away from his home.
Sentenced: To double life terms, Glenville Faro (20) and Franklin Roberts (21), for the savage gang rape and murder of 14-year-old Valencia Farmer on the Cape Flats two years ago. A youth, who was 15 at the time of the crime, drew an effective 23 years.
Jailed: For 11 life terms by the Cape High Court, People against Gangsterism and Drugs member Mansoer Leggett for 11 murders and seven attempted murders related to attacks on the Cape Flats during 1999. His co-accused was acquitted.
On to Z-levels: For Zimbabwe students from next year, as the government rules that Cambridge Examinations Board A- and O-levels be banned in state schools, to be replaced with locally set tests.
One point to go: For Bafana Bafana to qualify for the African Cup of Nations as the national soccer team beat Mauritius 3-0 in Port Elizabeth. The under-20 side did not fare as well: a 4-1 thrashing by hosts Ethiopia in the African youth championships put paid to their hopes of qualifying for the world championships in Argentina in June.
A long, long shower: For temperamental Moroka Swallows player Jacobia Cibi, banned for six months (with two suspended) from playing soccer for assaulting the fourth official during a Bob Save Super Bowl match.
Suspended: Former Mpumalanga ANC Youth League leader James Nkambule, from the party, after accusing senior provincial ANC officials of corruption.
Killed: Twenty-one people, with 142 injured, in three car bomb blasts in southern Russia, in attacks blamed on separatist Chechnya guerrillas.
End of the dream: The firing of senior officials hired from the private sector 20 months ago to clean up the corrupt and inefficient Kenyan public service. Their departure came days after the resignation of the head of the anti-corruption “dream team”, palaeontologist and conservationist Richard Leakey.
Improving: South Africa’s revenue from tourism, with visitors spending about R1-billion more in the first six months of last year than they had in the same period the year before.
Promised: By the Department of Home Affairs, immigration courts to function as courts of appeal against decisions almost never explained by departmental officials. The courts are proposed in a draft Bill.
The sick getting sicker: In Zimbabwe, where overworked government doctors (only 900 countrywide) have gone on strike over a pay dispute.
A fatal misunderstanding: The cause of a Belgian train crash, when a Dutch-speaking manager didn’t understand a telephonic warning from a French-speaking colleague that an empty train was on the wrong line. Eight people were killed.