Diphetogo Primary School in Mafikeng lost two-thirds of its teachers when their minibus taxi crashed early on Saturday near Lichtenburg, said the North West education department. A departmental spokesperson said Diphetogo had 23 teachers. Fourteen of them, including the principal, died in the collision.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) defended its withdrawal of an "unauthorised" documentary on President Thabo Mbeki in a full-page newspaper advertisement on Saturday. "At no stage was any pressure, political or otherwise, exerted on our editorial or legal staff," read the public broadcaster’s advert.
The classroom erupted in delighted cheers at the teacher’s vigorous thrusts into a toilet bowl. The plunger-wielding ”professor” from Japan, Atsuhiro Katsumata, was in Singapore to help the city-state’s toilet cleaners brush up their skills. Singapore, it seems, has yet to take its seat among the ranks of those with the most sparkling urinals.
Legendary television producer Aaron Spelling, who launched a string of star-making global hits such as Dynasty, Charlie’s Angels and Beverly Hills 90210, died following a stroke on Friday. He was 83. Spelling had produced about 200 television shows from the 1960s to date.
The death toll from floods and landslides in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province neared 250 on Saturday with another 100 still missing and thousands homeless, police and officials said. The disaster is the latest tragedy to afflict the world’s fourth-most-populous nation in the past few years.
Prosecuting masterminds of the Rwandan genocide has so far cost about €820-million. Twenty-eight sentences have been handed down to date. Should the ICTR achieve its goal of concluding 70 trials by the end of 2008, each trial will have cost on average at least €12-million.
For a team nicknamed the Black Stars, Ghana have certainly produced the brightest note for Africa at the World Cup finals. The debutants have finally confirmed the talent that has been seen in many of their youth teams down the years but never been replicated on the world stage.
Long before the first football was kicked at the World Cup earlier this month in Germany, hard-line Islamists were busily denouncing the massive competition as a corrupt show of Western influence. But as the daily matches have gone on, Islamists using the internet have shown they are not immune to World Cup fever.
Wing Wylie Human got a hat-trick of tries for the Lions but his side ended up with a single bonus-point reward for their efforts in their opening Absa Currie Cup rugby match in Durban on Friday night as the Natal Sharks claimed the spoils for a 33-22 victory and a bonus point for four tries.