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/ 26 February 2008

Whatever happened to literary love?

”I am alone next to the pool at Le Prince Maurice Hotel in Mauritius. In contrast, all the people around me are paired off. Every coupling is a story pitted with conflict, resolution, stalemates, passions, misunderstandings, wars and truces. A pity, then, how little hope they have of picking up a good modern novel and finding some reflection of, or consolation for, or explication of, their private experiences,” writes Tim Lott.

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/ 26 February 2008

‘In the end, Mr Shaik bribed Mr Zuma’

It was not cruel to make Schabir Shaik forfeit more than R30-million in shares after ”brashly using the prize” of Jacob Zuma to secure a business deal with an arms company, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday. Advocate Wim Trengove argued this during Shaik’s court application to have his assets returned.

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/ 26 February 2008

Musical diplomacy as NY Phil plays Pyongyang

Cold War foes the United States and North Korea enjoyed a rare moment of harmony on Tuesday when the New York Philharmonic played an unprecedented concert in the hermit state. An audience of North Korea’s communist elite gave America’s oldest orchestra a standing ovation after a rousing set that took in Dvorak, Gershwin and a Korean folk song

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/ 26 February 2008

Argentina invited to play Mandela match

Argentina have been invited to play world champions South Africa in a Test match in August to mark former president Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday, the Argentine union (UAR) said. The UAR has contacted European club authorities to ask for the release of their international players for the Test in Johannesburg.

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/ 26 February 2008

‘Secret boyfriend’ rapist jailed for 20 years

A 47-year-old man was given an effective 20 years in prison by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday after he was found guilty of rape and housebreaking. When he convicted Mthethunzima Ndzila Vangeli, of Elliot, of housebreaking with intent to rape, rape and theft, Judge Pieter van der Byl described him as a ”lying and pathetic witness”.