At first glance the text of the advert running in national newspapers on Friday reads like an attack on the burger and fries giant McDonald’s. The advert says it supports the core argument of a film where a man who eats burgers for 30 days piles on weight to such a health damaging extent that his doctors order him to stop eating them.
Researchers claim to have solved the mystery of the people who simply do not count. It could be because they are lost for words. The Piraha of the Amazon have almost legendary status in language research. They have no words at all for number. They use only only three words to count: one, two, many.
If there were a competition for the world’s worst traffic jam, several thousand drivers on China’s route 307 would have been able to offer themselves up as contenders this week after a 10-day, 96km snarl-up left them stranded in driving rain and searing heat.
The United Nations refugee agency accused Sudan on Thursday of breaking its promises in Darfur, as more refugees fled to neighbouring Chad from a fresh wave of attacks on civilians. Hundreds have crossed the border in recent weeks after assaults on 11 villages which fitted the pattern of the government-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing in the westerrn region.
This year’s 3 Continents Film Festival features an exciting line-up that includes <i>Original Child Bomb</i> — a poetic and contemplative film about the nuclear bomb and its cost to humanity — and the controversial documentary <i>Zimbabwe Countdown</i>.
The first thing I notice when I arrive at Graskop in Mpumalanga is the serenity that embraces this small town. Contentment is lodged in the atmosphere. Even first-time visitors realise that there is something about this town. The weather, the people and the vibe add to the mystery. Here is a story begging to be told.
As Athenians sweated to finish the Olympic stadiums, an Orthodox priest on the island of Paros, about three hours away, was intoning over a modest dwelling that may yet crown Greece’s cultural Olympiad. He was inaugurating the country’s first House of Literature.
After months of breathless anticipation, the Athens Olympics got under way last Friday, presenting a worldwide television audience of billions with an opening ceremony that, in the tradition of Greek drama, had us howling in a mixture of belly-laughter and gut-wrenching pity.
Mining group BHP Billiton’s financial results this week were in line with market expectations, but the dividends were disappointing, one analyst said. The Johannesburg-based analyst, who refused to be named, said while the earnings of the world’s largest diversified resources group were "broadly" as the markets had expected, no special dividends were paid.
Mining magnate Patrice Motsepe this week unveiled the first full-year results of his new company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) while revealing the next, and probably most interesting, chapter in his career. The results show how far Motsepe has come as a mining entrepreneur — and the hard work that lies ahead in turning ARM into a world-class diversified resources company.