The former editor of the Afrikaans pornographic magazine Loslyf must pay celebrity Amor Vittone R180 000 in damages, the Pretoria High Court ordered on Tuesday. This followed publication of ”manipulated” pictures that depicted Vittone in a very compromising position.
His is not a name that has been heard too often outside swimming circles, but George du Rand’s silver medal at the recent Commonwealth Games may change all that. On Wednesday, Du Rand and three other swimmers will head to Bratislava in Slovakia where they will be competing from May 26 to 28.
Gay and lesbian people on the conservative Indian Ocean island of Mauritius said on Tuesday they want protection against discrimination built into new human rights legislation. Although Mauritian law does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality, gay people here complain of rampant social discrimination.
The Department of Correctional Services is to introduce compulsory rehabilitation programmes soon, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said on Tuesday. ”The days of voluntary engagement in rehabilitation programmes are numbered,” Balfour told MPs in the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote.
The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday authorised a warrant for the arrest of British tourist Anthony Cooper, who allegedly started a massive fire on Table Mountain during last-year’s festive season. He is also charged with drunken driving and failed to appear in court on that charge on Tuesday.
Fresh insurgent attacks across Afghanistan have claimed nearly 20 more lives, including three police officers and 12 Taliban fighters, officials said on Tuesday. About 300 people have already died in recent days in some of the heaviest fighting since the radical Islamic Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001.
Another man thrown out of a moving train in Johannesburg has died, bringing the number of deaths within the past 24 hours to two, police said on Tuesday. About 20 people have been thrown from moving trains in Gauteng in the past few months — many of them working security guards believed to be targeted by their striking colleagues.
The Turkish army confirmed on Tuesday that a Turkish F-16 fighter jet and a Greek F-16 fighter jet had collided over the eastern Aegean Sea after what it said was an attempt by Greek warplanes to intercept Turkish jets. The Turkish pilot ejected and survived the crash, a statement by the general staff said.
A dissident Iranian journalist, Akbar Ganji, and a lawyer and broadcaster in Zimbabwe, Arnold Tsunga, will share a leading international human rights award this year. The award is presented every year by 11 of the world’s major human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Johannesburg metropolitan police officers will stop at nothing to have their grievances heard by city manager Mavela Dlamini, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union said on Tuesday. Metro police officers marched from Beyers Naude Square to the metro centre on Tuesday, causing some of the inner-city streets to be closed to traffic.