Gwen Ansell reviews <i>Bleeding Kansas</i> by Sara Paretsky; Jane Rosenthal reviews <i>Kathie</i> and <i> Don’t Tread on My Dreams</i> by Dora Taylor.
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> <i>El Cantante</i>, starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony and <i>Paris, Je t’Aime</i>.
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers discusses her play <i>Original Skin</i>.
It was an off-the-cuff remark on the red carpet at the Cannes film festival. But on Thursday it led to the embarrassment of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, an apology by one of the world’s great luxury brands, and the undiluted anger of a global superpower.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai launched a scathing attack on President Robert Mugabe’s rule of Zimbabwe on Friday, saying he had transformed a country rich in natural resources into a ”state of despair”. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) chief also vowed there would be no amnesty for perpetrators of political violence if he takes power.
South African cellular giant MTN could pick up to a 74% stake in India’s Reliance Communications in a share-swap deal being discussed between the companies, an official said on Friday. "The stock swap is an option being considered at the moment," a Reliance official said on condition of anonymity.
President Thabo Mbeki must release the letter he allegedly wrote to George Bush asking the American president to ”butt out” of Zimbabwe, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. Mbeki’s four-page letter to Bush apparently criticised the United States for taking sides against Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.
One of the two cargo freighters hijacked off the Somali coast this week was a German owned vessel registered in Gibraltar, a Kenyan maritime official said Friday. The MV Lehmann Timber seized on Wednesday in the Gulf of Aden, was managed by Kehdisgerland GMBH.
President Thabo Mbeki called on G8 countries on Friday to follow through on promises of support for Africa’s socio-economic rescue plan Nepad. ”The other G8 members have got to respond in the manner that Japan has,” Mbeki said at the end of a three-day development conference in Yokohama, Japan.
A New Zealand man has been convicted for assaulting a teenager with a hedgehog after asking him if he wanted to "wear a hedgehog helmet". William Singalargh (27) was fined for assault and offensive behaviour by a court in the east coast North Island city of Whakatane after a more serious charge of assault with a weapon — the hedgehog — was dropped.