The Pretoria High Court has reserved judgement in an application by a Gauteng chef to change intestate legislation that prevents him from inheriting his gay partner’s estate. Henley-on-Klip chef Mark Gory sought an order declaring unconstitutional a Section of the Intestate Succession Act of 1987.
Action will be taken against African National Congress mayors and councillors failing to live up to expectations, President Thabo Mbeki warned on Friday. Mbeki said he is confident the ANC’s candidate mayors — elected by municipal councils — will occupy their positions as servants of the people.
What are our most enduring images of a place: England, Europe? How did we come by them? How were they formed? How, if ever, are they changed? The first ”recitation” I recall ever having to learn by heart was The Daffodils by William Wordsworth, writes Ishtiyaq Shukri.
Sooty towers of flame spew into the air, night and day, as excess natural gas from the petroleum industry burns off, buffeting Nigerian villagers with jet-force heat and noise. For many living near the dozens of gas flares dotting southern Nigeria, the flames are just another, particularly potent, reminder that the country’s oil wealth has done little to benefit its people.
George Clooney has no problem being called a liberal — too many people in the United States, he said recently, act ”like it’s a dirty word” — but he draws the line at being called a blogger. The leftwing actor has fallen out with the leftwing commentator and socialite Arianna Huffington over whether he authorised his words to appear on her blog, The Huffington Post.
Iran reiterated on Friday that its nuclear programme is not up for negotiation, despite possible calls by the United Nations Security Council for it to accede to demands by the UN nuclear watchdog and immediately halt all nuclear enrichment activities.
The future of Manhattan’s Ground Zero was thrown into uncertainty on Thursday after negotiations between New York authorities and the tycoon who owns the lease of the site were acrimoniously abandoned. The governor of New York state, George Pataki, accused the developer Larry Silverstein of betraying the public’s trust.
Trade unions confirmed on Friday that Transnet’s sale of Metrorail has been delayed by a month, averting a threatened four-day nationwide strike next week by workers. Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin on Thursday helped the unions to persuade Transnet to delay the move.
The United Nations war crimes tribunal on Friday fended off speculation that former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was poisoned in its custody, citing provisional tests which showed no signs of foul play. Toxicological tests found "no indication of poisoning" nor any presence in his blood of rifampicin.
Israel on Friday confirmed that the deadly H5N1 bird-flu strain had been found in thousands of poultry, as five people were admitted to hospital and the authorities moved to cull multiple flocks of fowl. Battling the country’s first outbreak of bird flu, the authorities ordered poultry in a quarantined area in the southern Negev desert to be exterminated.