Representatives of the South African news media met a South African government delegation on Friday to raise concerns over threats to media freedom in Zimbabwe. The government delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and included senior Foreign Affairs officials.

One of America’s most distinguished men of letters, George Plimpton, has died unexpectedly, it was announced yesterday. He was 76. Plimpton, a best-selling author who wrote about sports from a participant’s point of view and edited the Paris Review literary journal, died in his sleep at his New York apartment on Thursday night.

An investigation into allegations that more than 600 women were raped by British soldiers on exercise in northern Kenya between the late 1970s and 2000 has concluded that all the local police records produced to substantiate the claims are forgeries.

The leader of the Anglican church in Africa has launched a furious verbal assault on one of his fellow primates after the latter criticised him this month in an interview with the Guardian. Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria has called on the Archbishop of Cape Town to repent for allegedly causing divisions among church leaders.

Of all Johannesburg’s perils, the one they don’t warn you about is chubbiness. There are alarms, sensors and panic buttons for the house, the car, the office, the garden, but nothing, no siren, no flashing lights, to signal your expanding self.