The mayor of New Orleans issued ”a desperate SOS” on Thursday as the effort to evacuate thousands of people still trapped in the flooded city was hindered by mob violence and gunfire. The appeal came as angry crowds clashed with police, and the city’s police chief warned that storm victims were being raped and beaten on the streets.

Mass funerals for victims of Baghdad’s stampede were held across Iraq on Thursday, with politicians trading blame for the deadliest disaster since the 2003 invasion. Fleets of mini-buses and pick-up trucks ferried hundreds of corpses for burial to the Shia holy city of Najaf while emergency services continued scouring the Tigris river for bodies.

Parliament’s portfolio committee on minerals and energy this week endorsed the findings of Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana, clearing PetroSA of any wrongdoing in its advance payment of R15-million to Imvume Management. Ruling party MPs were scathing about what they said were "baseless" allegations about the scandal.

It was her breasts that betrayed the Queen of the Elves. Where once folds of white gossamer covered a bosom as ambivalent (perhaps even manlike) as the dread sovereign, now fairy spandex strained to the point of laddering against unmistakably optimistic 36Cs.

After several years of tinkering at the margins, the government is now contemplating robust interventions in what it believes are crucial sectors of the "real economy": a dramatically expanded regime of subsidies for some industries, more support for strategic clusters and a tougher crackdown on the pricing of basic inputs such as steel, telecommunications and chemicals.