Women have moved on since the days when passion and love were forms of martrydom, writes Kathryn Hughes.
Kwanele Sosibo asks poet Saul Williams about grippo — his form of post-apocalyptic electro/punk-rap.
KwaZulu-Natal education minister Ina Cronje on Friday threatened legal action against the Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade after it claimed a ”link” between Cronje’s husband and the company distributing stationery for the education department. The brigade on Thursday called on KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele to sack Cronje.
South Africa’s HIV/Aids epidemic appears to be stabilising with new data showing only a marginal increase in new infections over the last year, the Department of Health said on Friday. A national survey of pregnant women visiting ante-natal clinics showed an infection rate of 30,2% compared with 29,5% in a similar study done in 2004.
A container ship stolen from the Walvis Bay harbour in Namibia is not a South African vessel, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) revealed on Friday. ”The ship is not registered on any of our [South African] rolls at all,” said Samsa’s Captain Saleem Modak.
Zimbabweans too proud to cry about their troubles could soon find it too dangerous to joke about them. Parliament next month will debate proposals to give the secret police extraordinary powers to intercept, read or listen to the mail, e-mail, telephone or cellphone communications of any of its citizens without the approval of any court.
At least 160 hidden deaths in a central Chinese province pushed the death toll to 482 from floods and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Bilis over the past week, state media said on Friday. Floods and landslides caused by Bilis destroyed tens of thousands of homes and left damage estimated at 20-billion yuan (,5-billion).
Countries across Europe were sweltering under a prolonged heatwave on Friday with at least 23 people reported dead from the heat in France and Spain as temperatures soared to record levels. The heatwave reached Italy on Friday, with temperatures exceeding 35 degrees in many parts of the country.
A mysterious electrical problem in New York City blamed for subway delays, flight cancellations and power failures on the hottest days of the year persisted for a fifth day on Friday, leaving 2 500 customers without power. The blackouts started on Monday evening in a handful of neighbourhoods in Queens.
Only 40% of the 11-million hectares of land seized from whites since February 2000 have been taken over by black farmers, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying on Friday. Mugabe told an annual gathering of 100 traditional tribal leaders the government had resumed allocating land after a temporary halt, according to state radio and the official Herald newspaper.