First came Madonna’s steamy smooch with Britney Spears, then Janet Jackson ignited fury by baring a breast. Now new battlelines are being drawn up in America’s culture wars — over TV condom ads. ”Condoms are the line in the sand,” said Randy Sharp of the American Family Association, which is behind a mass e-mail campaign to safeguard one of television’s last taboos.
Down three goals at half-time, it looked like Liverpool’s 21-year wait for a fifth European Cup success would never end. Amazingly, the end came just over an hour later. Liverpool scored three second-half goals in seven minutes to overcome the deficit and draw 3-3 with AC Milan before winning 3-2 on penalties.
The Tshwane Metropolitan Council will table an R8,9-billion budget for the 2005/06 financial year at its council meeting on Thursday. While ratepayers will not pay more for electricity before July next year, charges for water will go up 8,3% and assessment rates — more commonly known as property tax — by 7%.
In the shadow of the Washington Monument, within sight of the White House, unfamiliar, even un-American, things, are happening. A man in fine white cottons throws a ball to another, who hits it with an oddly wide bat. Other men, dressed in the same way, catch the ball and throw it through the air.
The defence in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial rested its case on Wednesday without calling the 46-year-old singer to the stand. The prosecution also began its rebuttal of the defence case on Wednesday, a process expected to take less than a day
Women who take the contraceptive pill are in danger of permanently dampening their libido, according to a team of scientists in the United States. Researchers at Boston University Medical College found that women who take the pill regularly have much lower levels of the hormone that drives sexual desire.
In the history of rock star misdemeanours, it wasn’t much of an offence. ”Happy fucking New Year, Tommy,” said Vince Neil, the lead singer of glam-metal giants Motley Crue, as he congratulated the band’s drummer on December 31 last year. But the remark — broadcast live on TV — led to the group being banned from NBC.
A leading scientist warned on Wednesday that the avian flu virus is on the point of mutating into a pandemic disease and says that current estimates that such a pandemic could cause 7,5-million deaths may understate the threat. His warnings come as experts writing in Thursday’s edition of Nature voice concerns about the world’s inability to manufacture sufficient vaccines for a pandemic.
The African National Congress tried to swat away the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Oilgate revelations last week like some pesky insect. But like the persistent gadflies that we are, we won’t disappear that easily. Hiding behind a paper-thin set of excuses, the party has argued that there is nothing wrong with a private company making donations to a political party.
President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace will splash out close to R3-million on a 10th wedding anniversary party at their rural home in Kutama, about 60km west of Harare. Several Southern African regional leaders are expected to attend, including best man at the wedding, former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano.