Pensioners buy a single egg when they shop. School numbers are falling because parents can’t afford to feed their children, let alone educate them. One desperate man who couldn’t make ends meet chose to pay with his life. Runaway prices are changing, perhaps for generations, the way people live and die in Zimbabwe.
South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, worst-hit by Aids in the country, faces a lack of burial space due the growing number of deaths from the disease, officials warned at a two-day conference that ended on Friday. The city of Durban is struggling to keep up: only two out of 22 cemeteries have vacant plots left.
Secret work on United States nuclear weapons at one of the top US laboratories has been halted and a government inquiry launched after two computer disks went missing, the third such security breach in eight months. The disappearance of the disks from the Los Alamos base was blamed on sloppiness among laboratory scientists.
Across Africa, straightening hair and lightening skin are considered essential elements of good grooming for women. Pharmacists’ shelves are stacked with bleaching and defrizzing products, some containing dangerous chemicals. But in Sudan it is not just a question of vanity, but politics.
A defiant Martha Stewart, the disgraced American doyenne of design, emerged from court on Friday vowing to make a comeback despite being sentenced to five months in prison for lying about an illicit share deal. ”Today is a shameful day,” she said outside court. ”It is shameful for me and for my family and for my beloved company.”
When Bobby Fischer returned to New York after winning the world chess championship in Reykjavik in 1972, he was presented with the keys to the city. Now, after more than 10 years in exile, all the United States authorities are offering their wayward son is a prison cell. Fischer was detained by immigration authorities this week.
A try in the dying seconds by Blue Bulls replacement loose forward Frans van Schouwenburg sealed a thrilling 33-32 win for the Absa Currie Cup champions over the Pumas at Loftus on Friday night. The Bulls led 9-8 at half-time. That late score kept the Bulls’ unbeaten record this season intact — but only just.
Along a pitted, broken road off one of the capital’s main highways, past piles of rubbish and a rusted barbed wire fence, stands a grand green sign for the Baghdad Equestrian Club. Here three times a week are the horse races: a glimpse of a life lived by Iraqis almost untouched by the all-consuming violence of the post-Saddam regime.
African discus record holder Elizna Naude and Surita Febbraio, South African record holder in the 400m hurdles, won gold medals at the 14th African Athletics Championships in Brazzaville, Congo, on Friday. Naude recorded a distance of 57,50m and Febbraio covered the distance in 55,13 seconds, her fastest of 2004.
A sensational try deep into extra time by captain and eighth man Pietie Loots handed the Bulldogs a dramatic Currie Cup first division 14-13 win over the Falcons at the Absa Stadium on Friday night. At half-time the teams were level at 6-6 with the Falcons having made most of the play.