The drive from Detroit to Mason City, Iowa, begins with car plants and ends with cornfields. Turning your back on the Motor City, you pass through the rustbelt, trace the lower contours of Lake Michigan and, after you’ve passed Chicago, cruise under the big skies and through open prairie.

A British woman who has devoted most of her life to caring for the people of Iraq became the latest victim of Baghdad’s ruthless kidnap gangs on Tuesday. Video footage of Margaret Hassan, looking tired and drawn with her hands tied behind her back, was shown on an Arabic television channel.

Have you always ached to know how to make the best tacos ever? Probably not, but Ian Fraser thought you just might. In his bag of useful (and useless) goodies this week, you can get a <i>Lord of the Rings</i> bargain, convert any currency into rands, compare local PC prices to international ones, learn how to sell poo on eBay, enlist the services of rifle-wielding childminders, spice up your lexicon and more.

The discontent over the trajectory of black economic empowerment (BEE), long simmering within the African National Congress alliance ranks, has finally burst into the open. The Congress of South African Trade Unions’s Zwelinzima Vavi and Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel have both criticised the get-rich-quick mentality among the super-empowered (the BEE-llionaires) and the aspirants on the lower rungs (the wanna-BEEs), writes Jeremy Cronin.

"This is a sad place, all these people are angry — nobody is happy here." Nomsa Sibaya sits with her arms crossed, staring at the women in the queue at the Johannesburg Family Court. Collecting maintenance is an uphill battle for many mothers in South Africa. Progressive laws are in place, but implementation is proving difficult