The United States filmmaker Spike Lee has been accused of ”exploiting” lesbian lifestyles and pandering to ”male sexual fantasies” in his new film, in which a straight man impregnates several lesbians a night at 000 a time. Prominent lesbians have dismissed Lee’s film, She Hate Me, saying its portrayal of lesbian life is both ”extremely harmful and lacking in complexity”.
Insurgents on Sunday launched a concerted effort to disrupt an historic national conference in Baghdad when they lobbed mortars at the venue where the assembly was being held, killing two people. Soon after delegates from around the country had begun debating, an explosion ripped into a taxi and bus stand a few hundred metres away. At least 17 people were injured.
Killer asteroids will essentially cease to be a threat within the next 30 years, according to a leading expert. Scientists are discovering near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) so fast that the chances of one hitting our planet with no warning is likely to become minute, said Dr Benny Peiser.
Mention caves and usually images of darkness, musty rocks and bats come to mind. But health specialists in the Czech Republic are putting caves in a more positive light by promoting a special treatment for allergies, bronchitis and other breathing problems called ”speleotherapy”.
Hot dog buns filled with ice cream instead of sausages are keeping youth cool this summer in Japan’s western Osaka city, local media reported on Monday. ”Ice dogs” have been made popular by an Rokko Ranch Arai ice-cream shop in downtown Osaka’s America Village.
The killing of a South African soldier on the Lesotho border with the Free State emphasises the crime crisis along the country’s borders, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said the government should seriously look at the situation along the Lesotho border.
Malaysian emergency services rushed to the tightly guarded United States embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Monday after a powder that police said could be anthrax was found in a letter. The incident comes just days after an anthrax scare at the US embassy in Sri Lanka last week turned out to be a hoax.
United States tanks rolled into the Old City of Najaf toward a holy Shi’ite shrine where militants were hiding on Monday as participants at a national conference voted to send a delegation to Najaf to try to negotiate an end to the fighting. The city, which had been quiet earlier, was hit by explosions in the late morning.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120441">Blasts shake Iraq conference</a>
The peer-review mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) should include a provision for free and independent press, Canadian Finance Minister Ralph Goodale was told on Monday. Goodale is in South Africa in his capacity as a commissioner of the Commission for Africa.
South African steel producer Ispat Iscor’s share price on Monday soared to an all-time high ahead of the group’s interim financial results on Wednesday, when it is expected to announce strong results driven by a high global steel price and restocking by local consumers of steel.