Teenagers have online cliques at MySpace; students star in Facebook; LinkedIn is an internet networking stage for professionals; and dogs and their human counterparts run with the pack at Dogster — a flourishing social-networking website for canines, referred to as "animal companions" instead of "pets".
Darfur rebels on Thursday accused Sudanese government troops of attacking their forces close to the Chadian border, saying three civilians were abducted following the raid. ”Government forces attacked us on Monday evening near Sirba,” local commander from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement Abdel Majid Duda Nur said.
A Kenyan court on Thursday jailed the former leader of a banned sect blamed for a string of beheadings and murders in recent months, judicial sources said. Amid a nationwide crackdown on the Mungiki gang, Nairobi principal magistrate Rosemary Mutoka slapped a five-year prison sentence on Maina Njenga for illegal possession of arms.
South African Solidarity union said on Thursday it had declared a dispute with Kumba Iron Ore, the first legal step towards a strike, after the company made a final wage offer of 8% against the union’s demand of 12,5%. Solidarity spokesperson Reint Dykema said in a statement the next step will be to ask the CCMA mediating body to appoint a facilitator.
Growth in South African household spending slowed to 7,5% year-on-year in the first quarter from 7,75% in the last quarter of last year, while debt reached record levels, the central bank said on Thursday. A household spending boom has contributed to high economic growth of 5% last year, but it has also added to inflationary pressures.
Photographer Liam Lynch has spent years hounding South Africa’s radical rockers. Now his images are on exhibition, writes Lloyd Gedye
Police in India have charged a three-year-old boy for allegedly leading a group of rioters and firing at security personnel, the toddler’s uncle said on Thursday. The incident dates back to a clash in the eastern state of Bihar between villagers and police in January, when officers were pelted with stones and shot at, Dhruv Kumar Jha said.
Police investigating a string of petrol-bomb attacks in politically tense Zimbabwe claim they have been barred from pursuing their probe in South Africa, reports said on Thursday. Zimbabwe authorities claim members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change carried out the attacks.
The battle between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the eThekwini municipality over controversial plans to rename several Durban streets and landmarks was adjourned on Thursday in the Durban High Court. The DA is asking the court to prevent the municipality from proceeding with the second phase of the renaming process to have the first phase reversed.