New Zealand’s national cricket team, the Black Caps, will tour Zimbabwe in August and September despite widespread international concerns about the Mugabe government’s human rights record, it was announced on Wednesday. Naming the team for the tour, New Zealand cricket chief executive Martin Snedden said no players had expressed reluctance to go.
Malawi has launched a comprehensive welfare plan to mitigate the impact of poverty and HIV/Aids on its estimated one million orphans.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation is almost too bulky to run and now it’s going to get even bigger. The 900-pound gorilla gained formal approval from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa last week to put on extra weight. Thus, implementing government policy, the regulator has given the green light for SABC TV 4 and 5, pending funding — probably from Parliament.
President Thabo Mbeki is expected to name South Africa’s new deputy president on Wednesday. Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said Mbeki would make a ”relevant announcement” with regard to changes in his Cabinet. When asked if the announcement would include that of a new deputy president, Khumalo said: ”I assume it will.”
Exactly 41 years to the day after three young civil rights activists disappeared in Mississippi, Edgar Ray Killen, a Ku Klux Klan member and part-time preacher, on Tuesday became the first person convicted over their killing.
It was the boldest of innovations. A chance for the mainstream media to strike back against the upstarts of the online world. On Friday the Los Angeles Times — an unwieldy broadsheet newspaper — launched its ”wikitorial”, an interactive device allowing readers to contribute to and rewrite its editorial column.
Plans by De Beers to expand its diamond retail empire with the opening of a new shop on Wednesday on Fifth Avenue in New York will be dogged by controversy after a human rights group called for a boycott. Survival International said it had enlisted the American feminist Gloria Steinem to join a picket line urging people not to enter the shop.
I thought we’d explore the incredibly fascinating and cutting edge concept of charred bread this week. You might find it hard to believe, in fact, just how seriously some people take the concept of toast. From creating a montage of 3053 pieces of toast, to the novel concept of Frozen Toast, Fraser has found it all.
Absa bank stands to be the biggest loser should the Competition Commission start an investigation into banking fees in South Africa, and this could have implications for Barclays if the deal goes ahead. The Falkena report, which analysed competition in local banking, has called for increased competition but it is unlikely the Barclays deal will start a price-cutting war.
Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks wanted to vanish because she feared she could not be the perfect wife. She picked Austin, Texas, as her original destination after seeing actor Matthew McConaughey talk about his hometown on TV. And she funded her odyssey by cashing a cellphone rebate cheque and emptying an old bank account.