Bulls gored one runner and trampled several others on Friday during the running of the bulls at this year’s San Fermin festival. All along the 82m route, which runs along narrow cobblestone streets from a corral to a bull ring, runners in the popular festival were knocked off their feet, pushed against the thick wooden barricades lining the streets, or trampled.
It’s 1.30pm in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Friday. Traffic stops around the Old Mosque. Thousands fill the streets. When the muezzin calls, they kneel, bow and pray in perfect unison. The sermon dwells on how to avoid contracting HIV, and the fact that people who are infected with the virus must be helped, not shunned.
Global climate change is likely to result in severe droughts and floods in the world’s biggest democracy, with major impacts on human health and food supplies, according to India’s report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. An earlier UN report predicts "extreme" impacts on Southern Africa’s water, fish stocks and agriculture.
”These five collections reflect the energy and craft in the work of local poets. As such, these are but indicators of an extensive writing taking place in the literary realm.” Michael Gardiner digs into a bounty of new writing by African authors, including Antjie Krog and Mongane Serote.
The resumption of Johannesburg’s delayed Egoli Gas supply was expected to be back on line on Friday between 1pm and 2pm, the utility said on Friday. The company ran out of gas midmorning after supplies from Sasol were interrupted due to a technical problem there. It had hoped to be back on line by noon.
Angry staff at the University of KwaZulu-Natal are squaring up against management over the "unsuccessful" amalgamation of the former universities of Natal (UN) and Durban-Westville (UDW). They say that six months after the merger took effect, they are still working under two different and unequal sets of employment conditions — with former UN staff favoured over the UDW cohort.
Two Pacific island countries have become the global centre of the Internet porn industry, according to a report. The report, by United States-based consultants Secure Computing, said Niue and Tonga provide addresses for almost as many pornographic web pages as the whole of Asia and Latin America. It alleges that Niue hosts 2,9-million pornographic pages.
Ever wondered how often you narrowly miss bumping into a friend in the street or whether anyone you know is in the same cinema, park or airport as you? Finding out could soon be as simple as looking at the screen of your cellphone thanks to Socialight, a phone-based social networking service. Once you’ve downloaded a small program, Socialight turns your cellphone into a ”friend radar”.
The killing of a 19-year-old boy in Phoenix, Durban, two weeks ago by city council security guards has again cast a spotlight on the measures state authorities use against impoverished communities in protest. Marcel King was shot dead by a member of a security company hired by the Durban council to disconnect electricity that had apparently been illegally reconnected in the Durban suburb.
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: <i>Spider-Man II</i> barely improves upon its disappointing and restrained predecessor. But at least he has an impressive opponent this time round in the form of Dr Octopus, writes Shaun de Waal.