The story of the night is the defection from Labour by those marching over to the Lib Dems — and some even to the Tories. Labour MPs never believed those opinion polls giving them an eight or 10 point lead. What they found on the doorsteps was profound anger focused on the person of British Prime Minister Tony Blair himself.
Over the past four weeks, Tories have paraded slivers of hope like castaways clutching salvaged treasure amid a rising flood. Now the waters have closed on them. In the days ahead, it will be for analysts to assess whether the result gives them any possibility of achieving victory in 2009.
Karl Rove watched the early returns trickle in on a big screen at the British embassy on Thursday night, and then when the shape of result began to emerge, he donned a red rosette and walked away. It was a suitably ambivalent gesture for United States President George Bush’s ever-present political mastermind.
Known as the ”grandmother of performance art” Marina Abramovic pioneered the use of use the body to test the limits of human endurance. Currently visiting South Africa, she and her partner, Italian scluptor Paolo Canevari, caused a stir, writes Brenton Maart.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/140506/shaik_icon_new.gif" align=left>"As all rivers must reach the sea, we have reached the sea," Judge Hillary Squires noted as state and defence counsel closed their arguments at the end of the marathon Schabir Shaik corruption trial. But it’s not quite over: the case must still traverse the flats of an acquittal or the roaring rapids of a conviction. No date for judgement has been set.
A 16-hour stand-off between police and a man who had threatened to shoot himself at Phoenix outside Durban ended when the man dozed off on Thursday afternoon and was arrested. Police spokesperson Inspector Alan Govender said the drama started on Wednesday when the man’s wife asked a policeman friend of theirs to trace her husband, a salesman, who had been missing for two days.
When Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers was asked to play American icon Elvis Presley, his first instinct was to reject the role. ”In my head I was saying, ‘No, no, no,’ because I wasn’t quite sure, first, about playing rock’n’roll stars and second, somebody who’s so well known to everybody,” said Rhys Meyers.
<b>MOVIE OF THE WEEK</b>: <i>Red Dust </i>is a watchable, often gripping, sometimes moving story based on some of what happened at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, writes Shaun de Waal.
Laurie Levine’s book <i>The Drum Cafe’s Traditional Music of South Africa</i> is one of 20 books being celebrated in this year’s Homebru themed "Many stories One people" and is based on the traditional songs, ceremonies and unstruments of South African tribes. She speaks to Malena Amuso.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: Sandile Memela describes his book <i>Flowers of the Nation</i> as a no-holds barred political thriller that explores the soul of so-called black society during this current transition.He tells ZA@PLAY more about the book.