About 50 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members on Sunday shackled themselves to railings at Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and poverty campaign. Cosatu’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary said marches would start at 10am on Monday in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Queenstown.
President Thabo Mbeki, a critic of boom gates, will soon be living in a gated community himself. The Tshwane metro council has approved an application for the closure of a number of streets in Bryntirion, the suburb that has been home to the president, members of the Cabinet and other important officials since the early 1900s.
Four people died when a Red Cross helicopter crashed near Uniondale in the Western Cape, the South African Red Cross Air Mercy Service said on Monday. The Eurocopter BO105 helicopter crashed on Sunday night with a patient and three crew members aboard. The wreckage was found at first light on Monday.
About 350 would-be illegal immigrants stormed part of the metal fence separating the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla from Morocco at dawn on Monday. Local authorities were unable on Monday to explain how the immigrants managed to break through or over the fence, whose height had been raised to six metres, in the latest in a series of assaults on the barrier.
It was a defining moment in 20th century culture — a fat, bearded scruff got to his feet in a San Francisco art gallery and electrified his audience with an epic poetic assault on American values accurately titled Howl. Within months, Allen Ginsberg was in front of an obscenity court (which eventually cleared him) while Jack Kerouac and the rest of the nascent Beat Generation joined him in the most radical literary and musical movement the United States has seen.
Zimbabwean police have arrested 14Â 706 vagrants, street vendors and illegal foreign currency dealers in the capital, Harare, over the past two weeks, a newspaper reported on Monday. The arrests come as police battle to enforce an urban clearance campaign launched five months ago that saw the arrest and subsequent release of about 46Â 000 street traders.
England World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson returned to action in Newcastle’s impressive 34-9 Anglo-Welsh Cup win over Sale on Sunday. Wilkinson came off the bench after 54 minutes and made an immediate impact, sending Matthew Burke over for a try and controlling the game with his varied kicking.
Reigning champions Chelsea opened up a nine-point gap at the top of the Premiership table after a stunning 4-1 demolition of Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday. Jose Mourinho’s side look unstoppable after cantering to their eighth successive league triumph following a stylish performance.
The Pulitzer prize-winning American playwright August Wilson who chronicled black America died on Sunday of liver cancer at a hospital in Seattle, Washington, surrounded by family and friends, his assistant announced. He was 60. Wilson won wide acclaim for his stage plays, which focused on the African-American experience through the 20th century.
In a new twist to the battle over next-generation DVDs, United States movie giant Paramount Home Entertainment said it will support Sony’s Blu-ray format while also making DVDs for Toshiba’s rival technology. Paramount will begin releasing content in North America, Japan and Europe suitable for the Blu-ray hardware after its launch.