Who hacked to death 59-year-old widow Elma Bredenhann and her elderly mother Albertina when they lay asleep in their beds at their suburban home? Was it Elma’s soft-spoken daughter Madeleen (29) who is now on trial in the Pretoria High Court for the gruesome killings?
On a shallow slope between two hills of orange rock and sand, a man’s body lies curled in a foetal position. His hands are thrown up as if to protect his face from the bullet that punched a hole in his temple. A few feet away on the bare slope, another man’s body lies between two youths. His arms are stretched out to the two younger ones, as if he was embracing them at the moment of death.
UN warns of returning refugee flood
Hunger stalks Darfur’s refugees
Two French journalists being held hostage in Iraq on Monday night warned that they faced death if France refused to yield to their kidnappers’ demands to repeal legislation which will ban Islamic headscarves in schools. Their captors extended the deadline for the government to overturn the law by a further 24 hours.
He is terrified of flying, and not too fond of ferries either, but when the maverick director Lars von Trier makes enemies, he’s not afraid to pick on the biggest bully in the playground. Fiachra Gibbons reports.
At an Aids support centre operated by Freedom Foundation, a private charity in Bangalore, the beautiful brown eyes of Rajni, a young Indian mother, look into a bleak future. Married at 14, she became a widow at 20 when her husband, who ran a small business, died of Aids-related illnesses — and she tested positive for HIV. A new initiative has been launched to help young women protect themselves against HIV.
If there was ever a critical moment for a universal income support mechanism such as a Basic Income Grant, it is now. This becomes very clear when looking at social security through the lens of the Aids epidemic. Nearly half of all South Africans live in poverty, half of these have no access to social grants and numerically speaking, South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world.
The United States must shoulder some blame for sky-high oil prices. The world’s biggest user has made no effort to wean itself off cheap petrol and its foreign policy has made matters worse. The other factors include Iraq, Saudi Arabia, speculators, Yukos and Venezuela. Here’s how.
English Premiership side Everton are in talks with European champions FC Porto to sign South African striker Benny McCarthy, private radio TSF reported on Tuesday. McCarthy was the Portuguese league’s top scorer last season with 20 goals but is not seen as a favourite of Porto’s new coach, Vitor Fernandez.
Business tycoons Tokyo Sexwale and Patrice Motsepe’s involvement in local soccer has been described as a positive step to end the sport’s Cinderella reputation in South Africa. ”We commend Motsepe and Sexwale,” said Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla at the official launch of Sexwale’s Mvela Golden League at the weekend.
”Was John Matshikiza’s column (‘The good, the bad and the ungrateful’) a belated audition for Winnie Mandela FC? Ronald Suresh Roberts replies.