If nothing else, the country’s matric results are a loud and painful reminder that the education system is in need of a major overhaul.
World tennis number one Roger Federer said he was fresh and motivated ahead of this month’s Australian Open as he arrived in the country on Friday in pursuit of Pete Sampras’s record 14 Grand Slam titles. Federer (26) is favourite to complete an Australian Open hat-trick at Melbourne Park from January 14 to 27, which would take him to within one slam of Sampras’s benchmark tally.
Cambodia suffered its worst-ever outbreak of dengue fever last year and it killed 407 people, most of them children, the highest toll in nearly a decade. Dengue, which causes fever had infected nearly 40 000 people since the first outbreaks last May, Ngan Chantha, director of the Health Ministry’s anti-dengue programme, said on Friday.
Supporters of Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga were on Friday set to defy a ban on a rally in the capital, Nairobi, as international pressure for an end to the political crisis mounted. The death toll from in post-election violence has already climbed past 350.
A team of police from Britain’s Scotland Yard is expected to arrive in Pakistan on Friday to help probe the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as the controversy over her death rages on. On Thursday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted he was ”not fully satisfied” with his own country’s handling of the investigation.
Barack Obama took a big step on Thursday towards becoming the first black United States president as his campaign for change caught fire in Iowa and swept him past Hillary Clinton in the opening Democratic nominating contest. Republican underdog Mike Huckabee capped a stunning political rise to beat rival Mitt Romney in Iowa.
A recent report by a Hollywood insider questions the profitability of making movies, writes David Teather.
Couscous could now provide the surprise recipe that saves France from cultural decline.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>The National Prosecuting Authority has thrown a powerful new book of charges at African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma, which includes the "super charge" of racketeering and a slate of new witnesses to testify against the newly elected ANC leader.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>On August 4, if there is no mistrial, postponement or any other unforeseen delay, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma will be charged with 16 crimes in the Pietermaritzburg High Court alongside Pierre Jean-Marie Robert Moynot of arms company Thint. Moynot, however, will not be an accused himself, but will represent French arms company Thales’s South African affiliates in court.