The internet often goes through bouts of soul searching, but a full-blown counter-reformation could be on the way. If so, then Andrew Keen, author of <i>The Cult of the Amateur</i>, could be the Martin Luther of the movement. He believes the so-called web 2.0 revolution is leading to "less culture, less reliable news and a chaos of useless information".
By delivering on their promise, and changing the definition of a cellphone. That’s what the original iPod managed in the MP3 player world, filled to that point with players of limited features, lame design and duff PC integration. The cellphone industry is, of course, more mature than the MP3 player industry was in 2001.
World champions Australia are among four international teams invited to play in a Twenty20 series for a winner-takes-all prize of -million although the man behind the idea accepts issues still remain. The event is the brainchild of Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire, who is also hoping to include Sri Lanka, India and South Africa in the week-long tournament.
Isolated shots rang out as a group of worried parents entered a besieged mosque in Islamabad on Friday to collect children caught up in a deadly stand-off between Islamic radical students and security forces. A cleric leading the Taliban-style movement at Red Mosque said overnight that he and hundreds of followers were willing to surrender.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika asked the army on Thursday to step up attacks on Islamist rebels, saying they were ”enemies of the people”. ”As armed forces commander in chief, I want the fight against residual terrorism doubled in intensity,” the official APS news agency quoted him as saying.
A child was born with four legs at the Lebowakgomo hospital outside Polokwane on Thursday night, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reports. Provincial health department spokesperson Phuthi Seloba said: ”This is a very strange case. In the past 10 years in this province we’ve never seen such a case.”
An illegal stash of mining explosives was probably to blame for a nightclub blast that killed at least 25 people in north-east China, media reports said on Friday. The explosion ripped through the Liaoning province club, killing at least 25 and injuring 41, including eight young girls holding a birthday party.
There have been some odd happenings in South African sport during the course of the 21st century. Take the case of cricketer Jacques Rudolph, who made his debut for the Proteas against India in 2001, only for the ICC retrospectively to strip the game of its Test match status.
Once upon a time, chocolate lovers had it easy. Lunchbar or Bar One? Flake or Sweety Pie? Or, perhaps, an Inside Story. Splashing out meant buying a box of Cadbury’s Milk Tray or Côte d’Or for your hostess at a dinner party. No longer. A sustained economic boom and growing affluence has seen an explosion of premium chocolates available in South Africa.
With strikes looming in the gold mining, coal mining, metal and other major industries, potentially involving hundreds of thousands of workers, 2007 is already the most strike-plagued year since the 1994 election. Jackie Kelly, of the labour consultancy Andrew Levy Employment, disclosed this week that 11-million working days had been lost to industrial action this year.