Lies, and lies within lies, were the topic of the day as the LeisureNet trial entered its second week in the Cape High Court on Monday. The liquidated group’s former in-house architect Dawid Rabie was being cross-examined on his evidence that joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rodney Mitchell pressured him into handing over  000 in kickbacks.
Sir Richard Branson realised his dream of getting into broadcast television this week as he sold Virgin Mobile to NTL — netting his empire almost £700million in cash and shares — and licensed the use of the Virgin brand across the new company’s TV, broadband and telecoms services.
The overall award for the Mondi Shanduka Journalist of the Year went to cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro – or Zapiro. This should spark some debate in the media industry about whether or not the definition of a journalist is broad enough to include a cartoonist; and whether cartoonists and journalists fulfil the same role.<
Sufferers from depression, who do not respond to existing treatments, could soon benefit from a new procedure in which electrodes are inserted into the core of the brain and used to alter the patient’s mood. Later this year, scientists at Bristol University in the United Kingdom will conduct the first trials of the so-called deep-brain stimulation method on sufferers from depression.
One month after the rebels chopped off both of Abubakr Kargbo’s hands with an axe, his son was born. ”I gave him my name,” said the father of four, gesturing towards the young Abubakr with a stump. ”I did not expect to live and I wanted my name to carry on.”
”I have observed, with a growing degree of trepidation, the slide of the Mail & Guardian down the slippery slope of sensationalism. Final proof of the dire levels to which this once-proud newspaper has sunk must surely be the article about the ”gravy plane” that the Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, is supposed to have boarded,” writes Uriel Llewellyn Abrahamse, deputy general manager of the African National Congress.
Silvio Berlusconi is as famous for being a media magnate as he is for being Italy’s Prime Minister, and his final TV debate with Romano Prodi before the general election turned out to be a political version of It’s a Knockout — though without a clear result. The Forza Italia leader was deemed to have done marginally better than in the previous round against his rival from the centre-left alliance.
Recently, the United Nations General Assembly voted to abolish its discredited Human Rights Commission and replace it with a stronger Human Rights Council. Whether the council lives up to its promise depends on the political will of governments as they elect the first members of the new body.
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The United States wants to settle the Iran nuclear crisis through diplomacy, President George Bush said on Monday, describing reports of plans to attack Iran as ”wild speculation”. While the White House is still warning Iran about its uranium enrichment, the administration went out of its way on Monday to play down reports of planning for military strikes.