Public service investigators are probing corruption allegations against struggle hero Marion Sparg, CEO in National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka’s office. The National Prosecuting Authority this week confirmed that Sparg, who is well known for her past role in Umkhonto weSizwe, is being probed by the Public Service Commission for alleged tender misconduct.
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.
South Africa’s ”Bonnie and Clyde” prisoner Charmaine Phillips was released on parole from the Kroonstad Prison in the early hours of Friday. Correctional Services spokesperson Johan Massyn said Phillips left the prison shortly after midnight.
The company behind the Dallas Morning News agreed on Monday to hand back -million to advertisers after admitting circulation figures for the daily and Sunday editions had been inflated. In ordinary circumstances the incident would hardly have raised a flicker of interest outside Texas.
A baby born with a 10cm-long ”tail” to an impoverished provincial family has brought locals flocking to make offerings and pray to her for luck, police in the south-eastern Cambodian province of Svay Rieng said on Friday. The mother, Sok Mao said that before the as-yet-unnamed baby’s birth she dreamed an old man had come to her with a magic monkey that would bring her luck.
Iraq’s prime minister, Ayad Allawi, on Thursday night issued a ”final call” for the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to disarm his fighters and leave Najaf’s mosque — or face the prospect of a devastating final assault. Using blunt language, Allawi said the radical Shia cleric had to accept the government’s demands personally and in writing to end the fighting in Najaf.
Najaf could face ‘bloodbath’ in hours
Dust storms emanating from the Sahara have increased tenfold in 50 years, contributing to climate change as well as threatening human health and destroying coral reefs thousands of kilometres away. And one major cause is the replacement of the camel by four-wheel drive vehicles as the desert vehicle of choice.
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.