Indian music legend Bismillah Khan, who enthralled generations with his shehnai, an Indian wind instrument, died on August 21 of a heart attack, hospital officials said. He was 90. Khan, a recipient of India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel India, had been ailing for months.
Veteran art director Ed Thrasher, who worked on hundreds of albums with such artists as Frank Sinatra and received 12 Grammy Award nominations, has died. He was 74. He joined Warner Brothers Records in 1964 where he did the photography for many of the albums as well as print ads and posters.
Joseph Hill, lead vocalist and songwriter for the traditional ”roots” reggae group Culture, died on August 19. He was 57. Hill abruptly fell ill and died in Berlin while the group were in the middle of a European tour, according to his daughter Andrea. She did not know the cause of death.
Photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his immortal picture of six World War II fighting men raising an American flag over battle-scarred Iwo Jima, died on August 20. He was 94. Rosenthal died of natural causes at a retirement home in the San Francisco suburb of Novato, said his daughter, Anne Rosenthal.
Three people died, two were missing and about 300 were injured in Budapest late on Sunday when a violent storm struck a fireworks display over the river Danube, attended by more than a million people. "According to the current information, there are three dead and two missing," government spokesperson Emese Danks said on Monday.
Oil prices rose back near a barrel on Monday, rebounding from declines the week before, after Iran insisted ahead of an official response to a package of incentives on its nuclear programme that it will not suspend uranium enrichment. Prices also appeared underpinned by concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria.
Air transport’s contribution to the South African tourism industry has helped tourism become the only sector that has grown in gross domestic product and in employment contribution to the economy, according to Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe. Speaking on Monday, Radebe said that air transport generates about 470Â 000 direct and indirect jobs across Africa.
A 28-year-old man was arrested after a chopped-up body was found dumped in a pit toilet in Tubatse near the border of Mpumalanga, Limpopo police said on Monday. A head, legs, hands and private parts were found severed from the rest of the body and in the toilet.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) charged Pakistan captain Inzamam ul-Haq on Monday with bringing the game into disrepute after his team forfeited the fourth Test against England at the Oval. ”There are two charges brought forward by the umpires, one for changing the condition of the ball and the other for bringing the game into disrepute,” ICC spokesperson Jon Long said.
The disciplinary hearings of former Bitou mayor Euan Wildeman and suspended municipal manager George Seitisho got under way in Plettenberg Bay on Monday morning, as a new row erupted over Seitisho. The Democratic Alliance has laid a criminal complaint against Seitisho after allegedly finding him and his lawyer making photocopies in the municipal offices on Sunday night.