Dan Brown took the stand on Monday to rebut accusations that he copied from other writers’ work to produce his massive best-seller Authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are suing Da Vinci Code publisher Random House for copyright infringement, claiming Brown ”appropriated the architecture” of their non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.
The quiet Tokyo neighbourhood of Higashikurume is getting its 15 minutes of fame — all because of a root vegetable that doesn’t know when to give up. Residents were amazed to find that a daikon — a thick white radish often used in Japanese cooking — had pushed its way between an asphalt pavement and roadside ditch, kilometres from the nearest field.
Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the Supreme Court, has said the United States is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party’s rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary. ”We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary,” said O’Connor.
The possibility that California could choose the first lesbian bishop in the Anglican church has deepened the schism over sex and faith, defying a 2004 moratorium on consecration of gay bishops. If elected on May 6, Reverend Bonnie Perry would become the church’s first lesbian bishop, a new milestone for the Episcopal church.
Senior police officers were overpaid, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. ”It seems that President Thabo Mbeki’s 2005 State of the Nation commitment to ‘improve the salaries of members of the police service’ has largely only benefited senior police managers, including National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi,” DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
Eritrea on Monday denied accusations by Ethiopia that it was behind three separate explosions that rocked Addis Ababa last week and wounded four people. Yemane Gebremeskel, director of the president’s office, said that the weekend accusations by Addis Ababa were meant to shift "attention from their own domestic problems".
”Back in the 1990s, I visited Kona Village Resort on Hawaii’s ”big island”. A truly beautiful and charming place, the overblown telegenic hula of Elvis and Steve McGarrett’s high-rise Honolulu nearby seemed a million miles away. With a fresh flower lei around my neck, I quickly settled into the ”barefoot luxury” of what the hotel blurb called the real Hawaii”, writes Simon Mills.
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To freeze during a rape and then take a long time to report it is consistent with the behaviour of a rape survivor, Jacob Zuma’s rape trial heard on Monday. Clinical psychologist Merle Friedman was testifying on the responses to rape by survivors and in particular with regard to the woman who laid charges against the former deputy president.
South African cricket fans woke up on Monday morning buoyed by the unbelievable achievement of their cricket heroes in doing the improbable.
President Thabo Mbeki has shared the writings of Deng Xiaoping with his spy service, intoned Duke Ellington to oil executives, astounded astronomers with Shakespeare and preached the Bible to lawmakers. Presidential spokesperson Murphy Morobe puts it mildly: ”He is extremely well read.”