A Lithuanian brother and sister who spent almost three days frozen in a block of ice have been rewarded for their "brave" feat by the government, a television report said on Thursday. Circus veterans Arvydas and Diana Gaiciunai were awarded 5 000 litas (about R11 100) each and given gifts by the prime minister on Wednesday.
A cigarette butt said to have been salvaged as a souvenir before a smoking ban has been sold in an internet auction in New Zealand for NZ$7 475 (about R33 300). The butt was purported to be the last smoked in the popular Auckland bar Malt before the introduction of anti-smoking legislation last year.
A Kenyan lawmaker known for linguistic improvisation was briefly detained by authorities this week for allegedly composing a song that mocks President Mwai Kibaki and his wife, police said on Thursday. MP Reuben Ndolo was arrested and questioned on Wednesday in Kenya’s Eastern Province.
Forget images of germ-free processed space rations. The crew of the international space station will now be able to feast on a range of Italian delicacies, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori revealed in Kazakhstan on Thursday as he prepares to blast off. "One of the particularities of this mission is that we’ll be taking Italian food with us," he said.
Although the rebel movement fighting in Uganda’s north has fostered an aura of religious mysticism based on an apparent wish to recreate a state following the Biblical Ten Commandments, its grudge against the Ugandan government is rooted in deep-seated grievances that stem back for years.
A Zimbabwean court on Thursday acquitted two British journalists from the Sunday Telegraph newspaper accused of illegally covering last month’s parliamentary elections. ”I find both of them not guilty and I will acquit them,” said Magistrate Never Diza. They still face charges of staying in Zimbabwe beyond their seven-day tourist visas.
International adoptions of South African children are in a state of legal limbo, with legislation to give effect to an international convention signed in 2003 not yet enacted. ”In effect, we have a legal anomaly. We have acceded to a legal convention, but everything that we are doing is ultra vires because it’s not part of our law … We are operating extra-judicially, can you imagine the implications?” asked a family-law specialist.
If you have something that you don’t need and that is too good to throw into the dustbin, why not give it to someone else on the internet? An increasing number of websites are offering things people don’t need to others who can still find a good use for them.
South Africa is looking at tougher measures to speed up land reform, which could include challenging prices that white farmers are demanding to cede their property, as part of the drive to address injustices from the apartheid era, a top official said. Black ownership of land has increased from 13% at the end of apartheid in 1994 to 16%.
South African economists have reacted to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) monetary policy committee’s (MPC) decision on interest rates announced on Thursday. The MPC decided to cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 7%. The rand weakened sharply after SARB Governor Tito Mboweni announced the MPC’s decision.