Babies of HIV-positive mothers are twice as likely to become infected by the virus if they are given formula milk in addition to breast milk, and the risk rises eleven-fold if they are given solid foods, South African researchers have found. Exactly why mixing breastfeeding with other foods increases the risk of HIV infection is still unknown.
The leader of the Cape Town-based African Muslim Party, city councillor Badih Jamil Chaaban, has launched a R300 000 defamation claim against City of Cape Town executive mayor Helen Zille. Although the trial date has yet to be fixed, Chaaban’s lawyer, Brian Lutzno, on Monday confirmed that the summons had already been served on Zille.
More than 4 000 unexploded weapons collected after the Malhazine armoury blasts will be destroyed at Moamba in Mozambique on Monday, Vista News reported. In its online Monday edition the daily Noticias said that more than 4 000 unexploded arms, which were collected from townships near the armoury, would be destroyed.
This column concerns an old theme — can we truly develop a constitutional democracy without any shared normative framework? The question is prompted by the government’s inexplicable failure to respond to the oppression in Zimbabwe in anything other than its usual passively ineffective way, as refined over the past five years.
The view of most commentators is that the De la Rey song is a call to mobilise Afrikaners against black people in general and the government in particular. High-powered editors, columnists, radio and television hosts read the lyrics as ”right-wing exclusivity” and a ”whining for lost power”. A government minister yawned and warned.
Following a dream run at Ellis Park this season, with three victories in four games, the Lions were brought down to earth on Saturday by a charged-up Brumbies outfit which beat the home side 14-9. The visitors’ fullback Julian Huxley led their crusade, scoring all 14 points, which included a try, two penalties and a drop goal.
If a South African ”footballer of the year” for the 2006/07 season had to be nominated now, it would not need a soothsayer to predict that the choice would be Godfrey Sapula. And on Saturday night at a seething Loftus, the dynamic 33-year-old midfielder demonstrated exactly why this accolade is almost certainly heading his way.
The Gautrain project fell victim to April Fool’s Day in two Sunday newspapers. The Sunday Times reported that low budget airline Kulula.com had announced a bold plan to take on the Gautrain by launching a flight service between Pretoria, Sandton and OR Tambo International Airport.
Mortar rounds crashed into central Mogadishu on Sunday in a fourth day of battles between Islamist insurgents and allied Ethiopian and Somali government troops that have killed scores of civilians. Locals living near the main soccer stadium said bombs fired from the south of the capital started striking around 9.30am, spreading panic as fighting resumed.
Diego Maradona is expected to remain hospitalised for more than a week while doctors treat health problems ascribed to excess alcohol consumption, overeating and smoking. Routine tests detected some ”alterations” affecting Maradona’s liver, his personal physician Alfredo Cahe said on Saturday.