One critic has likened it to a giant petrol station. The heritage group Italia Nostra calls it an ”eco-monster that should be torn down forthwith”. After a controversy that has endured for more than seven years, the mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, unveiled a concrete, glass and travertine structure by the Tiber on Friday, the work of United States architect Richard Meier.

A United States foreign correspondent on Friday launched a £2,3-million claim for unfair dismissal at a London tribunal, claiming that he had been sacked for refusing to cover the war in Iraq. Richard Gizbert, who had worked for US broadcaster ABC News for 11 years, believes his case has wide-ranging implications for other journalists.

Three councillors, a former MP and a Democratic Alliance office worker are set to improve their political fortunes if the DA’s court action against five defectors in Parliament is successful. On Monday the DA will ask the Cape High Court to declare unlawful and invalid the defection of four of its senior black MPs to the African National Congress.

South Africa’s first expropriation of land for restitution was announced recently. The Land Claims Commission announced on Thursday that it would be serving an expropriation notice on the owner of the Leeuwspruit farm, near Lichtenberg in North West.

Khayelitsha has again logged the most murders in the county, but Western Cape safety and security authorities say the rate is the lowest in 10 years. ”The situation has changed,” maintained Western Cape community safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane on Thursday.

”Police had warned us not to go into Botleng and about 200m away we could see fires smouldering in the rock-strewn main road. In what we thought was a safe spot, we stopped opposite the school to check with a contact for directions. The next moment, three youths were at the sidewindow demanding to know what we wanted,” writes Yolandi Groenewald and Monako Dibetle.

Thembi Sibisi encourages the young women she tutors to think of men as asses. ”In a pumpkin field, donkeys take a single bite from each pumpkin and if they are not happy with the taste, move on to the next. They don’t care if hundreds are left to rot. Men do the same. They ‘taste’ women until they find one they want to marry,” Sibisi tells them.

Hurricane Rita weakened further on Friday but United States forecasters said it would still be a dangerous, major storm when it hits land. About one million people have left the area around Houston, Texas, ahead of Rita, including about 15 000 who were helped out by authorities, city officials said on Friday.