Belly-flopping in the mud, tossing toilet seats and guzzling beer, average Joes celebrated the unrefined life of the American "redneck" at a wacky annual event initially held as a counterpart to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. A toothless man who calls himself "Freight Train" kicked off the event on Saturday.
A boy called Hell has been barred from enrolling in a Catholic school in Australia because his surname jarred with its religious teachings, the child’s father said on Monday. The youngster’s dad, Alex Hell (45), has expressed outrage after the primary school in the southern city of Melbourne allegedly refused to admit his son, Max.
A female Muslim juror has been arrested in Britain after allegedly listening to an MP3 player under her <i>hijab</i> headscarf during a murder trial, police said on Monday. The woman was meant to be helping try the case of a pensioner accused of bludgeoning his wife to death after 50 years of marriage.
A 70-year-old woman was left bruised and bleeding following a clash with a police officer in western Utah state. The woman’s offence? Failing to water her front lawn properly. Violence flared when a police officer issued her a ticket for failing to maintain the garden of her home in Orem, 72km south of Salt Lake City.
Western Cape African National Congress (ANC) provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha on Tuesday accused the Paarl town council, led by the Democratic Alliance and Independent Democrats, of organising a witch-hunt against duly appointed council officials. He was responding to reports that the council had suspended municipal manager Sidima Kabanyane.
Britain said on Tuesday that Russia’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the main suspect in the murder of Russian émigré Alexander Litvinenko, was ”unacceptable”. ”We’ve consistently said that the murder of Litvinenko is a serious criminal matter,” a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said.
Orania chairperson Carel Boshoff’s wife, Anna, died on July 10 at the age of 75, the family said. "Tannie Anna, as she was known, was a community person par excellence, and will be remembered for the countless initiatives aimed at maintaining and reclaiming the Afrikaner’s freedom," the family said in a statement.
Five people were killed in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, police said on Tuesday, in a widening crackdown on a criminal gang blamed for a horrifying spate of murders and beheadings. The five were shot dead and two pistols recovered after carjacking and robbery incidents in the capital’s Ngong and Balozi suburbs overnight, police said.
Rescuers used motor boats on Tuesday to try to reach at least 4 000 pastoralists marooned by floods in Ethiopia’s remote south-east. A senior official in South Omo region said 1 800 people had been moved to safety so far since hundreds of families were surrounded when the Wotio River burst its banks last week.
Ugandan police are holding a Ghanaian preacher over a stage magic device they fear may dupe people into believing they have experienced miracles. Customs officials seized the Electric Touch device — which magicians use to give small electric shocks to volunteers — from ”Prophet” Obiri Yeboah at the airport last week.