”After having just seen Mind Games I’m waiting at the theatre bar to interview its creator and star, Marc Salem. And I can’t decide whether I should make a break for it or silently pray that his publicist will phone to tell me Salem doesn’t feel up to it.” Alex Sudheim opens herself to a real mind bender.
A record number of women are expected to take part in Sweden’s annual moose hunt when it opens next week, with women now making up a quarter of those passing hunting exams, officials say. Hunting is a hugely popular national pastime in Sweden, in particular the moose hunt, and is as much a part of life for the country’s working class as it is for the rich.
Reconciliation is the stuff of ex-pat legend, sipping G&Ts in Happy Valley, spreading white mischief on the veranda at safe distance from the real lives and real problems of the ”natives”. But keeping your distance only serves to keep you distant, writes Phyllida Cox.
Like many children in northern Uganda, Omony has witnessed boys and girls committing terrible crimes. But he can talk about his experiences in a way others cannot. The reason: because 15-year-old Omony is a character in a radio soap called Ngom Wa, which is allowing northern Ugandans to confront the horrors of an 18-year civil war in which children have been both victims and aggressors. Jeevan Vasagar in Gulu reports.
A Free State judge has sharply condemned delays in DNA testing in a murder case in the province, media reports said on Wednesday. ”Must we close the courts, sit and twiddle our thumbs and do everything in Africa time to accommodate a national police commissioner who doesn’t do his job?” asked judge Arrie Hattingh in a circuit court sitting in Harrismith.
The United States government has been accused of trying to undermine the Chávez government in Venezuela by funding anonymous groups via its main international aid agency. Millions of dollars have been provided in a ”pro-democracy programme” that Chávez supporters claim is a covert attempt to bankroll an opposition to defeat the government.
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Pierre Moynot, the executive of the French arms manufacturer charged alongside Jacob Zuma for corruption, may have incriminated himself when he testified in the Schabir Shaik trial. The defence team for French arms dealer Thint said that when Moynot testified in the Shaik trial ”he [was] not warned by the state that the questions he will be asked may incriminate him”.
Hard-pressed Iraqi government forces were forced to strike a truce with Shi’ite militia fighters on Tuesday, as fierce fighting followed by a pipeline explosion left 155 people dead. Officials said that 81 people died in Diwaniyah in Monday’s clashes between security forces and militiamen and that on Tuesday a fire at a fuel pipeline outside the town killed 74 more.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is breaking the law by making unproven claims about the effectiveness of alternative ”treatments” for Aids, according to the South African Medical Association. She has been dubbed ”Dr Beetroot” because of her advocacy of a beetroot, garlic and lemon diet for people with Aids.