About halfway through this book, I was still wondering why Natasha Distiller had felt the need to write it when — out of left field, so to speak (actually right field) — there arrived in my inbox a press release that provided at least one possible answer, writes David Macfarlane.
Joe Abercrombie’s Before They Are Hanged: Book Two of the First Law (Gollancz) puts some very modern preoccupations — the nature of war and the motivation of torturers — under the fantasy glass. His main protagonists are, in his own words, ”a crippled torturer, a sneering, self-serving nobleman and a psychopathic barbarian with a bloody history”, writes Gwen Ansell.
Zimbabwe is a long way from being ready to join Southern Africa’s rand monetary union, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni was quoted as saying on Monday. ”A very high degree of macroeconomic convergence is necessary. They have a very long way to go,” he said.
Seven people were killed in a collision between a bus and a fire engine in Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday. The crash claimed the lives of three firemen and four bus passengers, six of whom died on the scene. Police spokesperson Zandra Hechter said the seventh accident victim died in the Port Shepstone Provincial Hospital.
Human remains believed to be those of the ”Pebco Three”, who were murdered by apartheid-era police, were found on a farm near Cradock, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Monday. Spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said NPA investigators followed up several leads and discovered the remains during a dig on the Cradock farm known as Post Chalmers.
Iraqi fishmongers complained on Monday that rumours of river carp eating human flesh had caused sales to plummet, even though senior clerics denied reports they had banned the fish from the table. Over the past four years, the bodies of hundreds of victims of the city’s death squads and militias have been dumped in the Tigris.
Apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok and former police chief Johann van der Merwe will be charged with attempted murder next month. National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said on Monday that the matter will be heard on August 17.
Six people were stabbed to death during initiation ceremonies over the weekend, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Captain Jackson Manatha said the initiates were stabbed by people while attending three different ceremonies. Five people were arrested in connection with the incidents.
Progress was made in talks on Monday to avert a strike at oil refineries and fuel producers, trade union Solidarity said. Spokesperson Marius Croucamp said the unions met employers, who made an official offer of a 7,5% wage increase. Negotiators indicated they would increase the offer to 8% provided the employer agreed.
Britain announced on Monday the expulsion of four Russian diplomats to protest against Moscow’s refusal to extradite a suspect over the murder of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko, the first such step in over a decade. The decision marks a major escalation in the row triggered by Litvinenko’s radioactive poisoning last November.