With the click of a switch, brightly polished restaurant tables lift almost magically into the ceiling and from sliding panels in the floor ice buckets emerge in time for the waiter who arrives with the champagne. As the drinks are served the back wall lifts slowly to reveal a huge aquarium dominated by a hammerhead shark.
Several South African municipalities are looking at offering telecommunications services as a service to residents or have already begun to do so, says Dr Andrew Hutchison, T-Systems South Africa’s business manager for telecommunications. This trend has immense potential to help the country bridge its digital gaps.
Australian football fans heading for the World Cup in Germany next month have been warned to avoid mocking references to the country’s World War II Nazi history. A travel advisory issued by the Foreign Affairs Department says acts such as making a Nazi salute will not be treated as a joke.
Two Johannesburg Metro police officers were released on R2 000 bail on Tuesday after they were arrested for taking explicit photographs of a 16-year-old girl from Eldorado Park, Soweto, police said. The policemen were arrested for contravening the Films and Publications Act at the beginning of May after the girl’s mother discovered the explicit photographs on her daughter’s cellphone.
Laurie Fisher signed up to coach the ACT Brumbies for another two years on Wednesday, admitting the Super 14 side faced a challenging time with key players Steve Larkham and George Gregan reaching the end of their careers. ”It’s an important next couple of years as we come to the end of all our first time players,” said Fisher.
Clouds of searing heat belched out of an Indonesian volcano early on Wednesday as scientists anxiously waited for a feared eruption that has forced thousands of villagers from their homes. Despite apparently reduced activity at Mount Merapi, which produced major clouds of gas and ash on Monday, experts warned that the volcano remained highly dangerous.
South Africa’s vibrant game auctions replete with animals ranging from rhinos to giraffes are being seen as a key element to the country’s conservation efforts. As game hunting as well as camera safaris and eco-tourism earn mega bucks, more and more people are being lured to open game farms.
An X-ray of Kamil Abdel Qader’s lungs show a lower third that is entirely scarred — lasting damage from the poisonous gas that rained down on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. Doctors say he needs to get a fist-size chunk of tissue removed from his damaged lungs if he is going to survive, but he still considers himself the lucky one.
It would not take an expert cryptographer to discern the true mission of the train that rolled out of London Waterloo on Tuesday night bound for the Cannes film festival. Though the train — named the Da Vinci Code, and carrying Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen and Audrey Tatou — was apparently trying to break the world record for the longest international non-stop rail journey, some suggested it was little more than a glorified publicity machine.
Max Ozinsky, widely credited with being the strategic mastermind behind the Western Cape African National Congress, is weary of attracting attention. The provincial party’s only white ANC office-bearer, he prefers the shield of collective leadership. The Mail & Guardian spoke to the man who has often been described as an intractable revolutionary.