An excitement among audiences about local themes is giving impetus to a vital writing culture, writes Gabeba Baderoon.
South African students of dance got a boost this week when they collaborated with one of Europe’s great dance companies, writes Matthew Krouse.
If appearances counted for anything, then Floyd Landis would be arriving in London for the start of the Tour de France next week as the pre-emptive favourite to defend his stunning victory of last July, and not as a pariah. Never has a man looked so innocent, so steady of gaze and sweet of disposition.
To watch Roger Federer play tennis is to understand why the word ”stroke” became the game’s operative verb. This week’s undemanding opening to his attempt to win a fifth consecutive men’s singles title at Wimbledon offered the opportunity to admire his ability to caress the ball at all angles and velocities with a wonderful delicacy.
On a chilly October evening in 2003, Rotherham United arrived at Highbury for a third-round Carling Cup tie relieved that Patrick Vieira, Arsenal’s formidable captain, was unable to play because of injury. In the Frenchman’s place Arsene Wenger had selected a midfielder from Catalonia. Francesc ”Cesc” Fabregas had arrived from Barcelona just four weeks earlier.
The future of the African Union will come under scrutiny only five years after its creation at a summit this weekend where some heads of state will launch a push for a closer federation across the continent. The three-day meeting will take place in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
Growth in demand for credit from South Africa’s private sector slowed marginally to 24,84% year-on-year in May, data showed on Friday, easing slightly pressure for more interest-rate increases. Private-sector credit extension slowed from 25,08% year-on-year in April, the South African Reserve Bank said, below forecasts of a 25,6% rise.
If you were to stop someone you know and ask them to give you a list of all their friends — together with their friends’ friends, complete with their special interests — you would be dismissed as strange, if not bizarre. Yet that is what is happening voluntarily with the seemingly unstoppable expansion of social websites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.
Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua declared about -million in personal assets on Thursday, saying public financial disclosures should be standard practice as his country battles to curb official corruption. Yar’Adua took power on May 29 with a promise to fight graft in one of the world’s most corrupt nations.
British police defused a bomb in a parked car in London’s theatre district on Friday and launched a counter-terrorism investigation. Sky News quoted unidentified sources as saying the bomb was ”potentially massive”. The bomb was found hours after new Prime Minister Gordon Brown named his Cabinet.