While most other children were spending their time in school playgrounds, Redda Sarsawe was earning a living for his family by working as a carpenter. "I left school five years ago," says the 14-year-old from Hagar Aswad, an impoverished suburb south of Damascus. "My parents didn’t give me any money for books, so I started working."
Hamburgers are to Cape Town cuisine what coloureds are to South African racial politics — everybody has an opinion on what defines the perfect hamburger. Chris Roper tries his best to hunt down the best hamburger in Cape Town.
How could he do it? How could Zinedine Zidane, captain of the French soccer team, regarded as the best player of his generation and in the final match of an illustrious career, headbutt an opponent and hand victory to an Italian side playing for penalties?
It was seven minutes before half time. Real Madrid were 2-0 down against already relegated opponents in May 2004, when David Beckham tackled Real Murcia’s Luis Garcia. The England captain thought the tackle was clean but the linesman flagged for a foul. Leaping to his feet, the Dagenham-born galactico unleashed a volley of idiomatic Spanish, calling the official a ”hijo de puta [son of a whore]”.
The Simpsons are a famously dysfunctional family from small-town America, but suddenly they have all learned Arabic and started talking like Egyptians, reports Brian Whitaker.
Wataru Tsurumi sparked outrage more than a decade ago with his handbook on how to commit suicide. Now, he says, Japan is finally addressing an issue it long turned a blind eye to. The Complete Manual of Suicide, which was published in 1993 and has sold more than a million copies, has created the momentum for the start of public discussions on the issue, he said.
The Politburo Sessions launches its first compilation disc entitled 50funkYears! A Soundtrek this weekend. Kwanele Sosibo talks to the crew about the collection and questions the relevancy of the sessions.
She was famous for her collection of 3 000 pairs of shoes, love of the high life and marriage to one of the world’s most reviled dictators. Now the life of the Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos is being turned into a musical, reports Peter Richards.
Violence will not stop the minibus taxi recapitalisation programme, the Department of Transport said on Thursday. ”No amount of threats and thuggery by a tiny group will influence our determination to proceed with the implementation of our policies and programmes,” spokesperson Collen Msibi said in a statement on Thursday.
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