Open source is alive and well in South Africa’s biggest township, Soweto. Bongani Hlope carries the flag high, planning a <i>tsotsitaal</i> translation for Linux to make it more accessible for his neighbours. By day, he’s a Java developer at health-insurance giant Discovery Health.
Injuries have forced Springbok coach Jake White to make three changes to his Test-winning side, including dropping star centre Jean de Villiers for the weekend’s second Test against Scotland. Both De Villiers and centre partner Jaque Fourie have been ruled out. De Villiers had left the field in the second half of the first Test with rib injuries.
Springbok coach Jake White announced a new centre pairing to face Scotland in the second Test in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. Injuries to centres Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie forced White to select the untested combination of Olivier and Snyman.
Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk had a ”peaceful” night after a tracheotomy was successfully performed, Panorama Medi-Clinic said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Melissa Rademan said De Klerk was in a stable condition in an intensive-care unit at the hospital.
More safe blood is needed in Africa, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) on World Blood Day on Wednesday. ”The need to collect enough blood and to make it available for patients is more acute in developing countries, and particularly in Africa,” said Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, the regional director of the WHO regional office for Africa.
Islamic militia captured the Somali town of Jowhar on Wednesday as fighters from a United States-backed alliance of warlords fled one of their last strongholds in the war-ravaged country. Heavily armed gunmen loyal to the Islamic courts were seen patrolling the town, about 90km north of the capital Mogadishu, which they captured earlier this month.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), builder of Airbus jets, plunged into a stock market vortex on Wednesday, losing about €7-billion in the first few hours of trading on further production delays to its super-jumbo A380 flagship and a profit warning.
Fifty-five people are dead or missing from flash floods that ripped through south-western China’s Guizhou province early this week, the government said on Wednesday. At least 25 people were confirmed dead from the flooding in mountainous areas of Guizhou, while another 30 people were missing, the state flood-control headquarters reported.
The JSE was firmer at midday on Wednesday, having bounced after Tuesday’s sell off. By 12.21pm, the all share and all share industrial indices added 0,82% and 0,93% respectively. Resources rose 0,9% and the gold mining index jumped 2,09%, but the platinum mining index lost 0,57%.
The towns of Rouen, Le Havre and Dieppe form the outermost limits of what is known as the ”magic triangle” in the French Normandy. In the north, the commune of Etretat and its white chalk cliffs attract millions of tourists every year. In the south, the river Seine meanders in large curves through undulating countryside, flanked by Norman monasteries, towards its estuary.