Three hundred years from now, the world’s population will have stabilised at about nine billion and most of us will look forward to living until age 95. In Japan, that bastion of longevity, people will be hanging around until they’re 106. India, China and the United States will still be the most populous countries on the planet — if they still exist — and Africa’s share of the world’s population will double to 25%.

Specialist photographer at Beeld, Jan Hamman, died at his home on Friday morning after a long battle with cancer. Known for his wildlife and sports photography, Hamman had a hand in the fame of cricketer Jonty Rhodes, with his image of the fielding legend diving for a ball, said Beeld chief photographer, Halden Krog.

Some time, way back, time stopped in Soguksu. Here, high in the mountains of Turkey, close to the border with Iran, the lives of carpet-weaving girls are measured solely in knots. Behind the breezeblock walls of impoverished homes, on slushy streets overrun by sheep, their dreary regimen is dictated at birth.

The Department of Education turned up the heat on Thursday by dismissing teachers’ claims that the government has betrayed its salary promises. Buck-passing within the government over teachers’ salaries has let down teachers and now puts the future of 700 000 matric learners currently writing exams at risk, all four teacher unions say.

South African struggle history and self-help books are all the rage with book thieves in Johannesburg. Recently retired librarian Jane McArthur told the Mail & Guardian, ”The last three years I was working at Rosebank public library it just became a joke. Among the most frequently stolen books is, oddly enough, Conversations with God.

The agricultural portfolio committee in the Eastern Cape has asked the provincial minister for agriculture, Max Mamase, to explain allegations that the bond on his R2,7-million home is partially funded by a local citrus farmer. Last week the M&G revealed that Mamase may have received kickbacks in the form of bond payments for his East London house from Norman Benjamin.

With a warrant for his arrest dropped and a new passport in his back pocket, alleged Cosa Nostra financier Vito Palazzolo seems set to return to his homeland.
This week Italian prosecutors from the Palermo jurisdiction began hearing evidence in Cape Town as a last-ditch attempt to prosecute him, but even this attempt appears doomed as key witnesses will not be appearing in court.

Students and staff at North-West University’s Mankwe campus near Rustenburg fear that the campus will be closed down and say the university has reneged on promises that the campus will stay open. Staff and students blame only one man — vice-chancellor Theuns Eloff. ”Now he has shown his true colours,” says Daisy Sedumedi, convenor of a staff and student task group to save the Mankwe campus.