A Spanish hotel chain is looking for stressed guests who will be allowed to let off steam next week by smashing the interior of a central Madrid hotel as part of its refurbishment. NH Hoteles will select 30 people who will be able to take part in the destruction of the 146 rooms at the 11-year-old hotel on July 3.
President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday drew a line in the sand for the left-wing elements in the tripartite alliance who are seeking to push the African National Congress (ANC) in a more radical direction. He was speaking at the opening of the ANC policy conference in Midrand, Gauteng.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday said it beheaded three men convicted of various crimes, bringing the total number of executions announced by the ultra-conservative kingdom so far this year to 101. The Interior Ministry announced in a statement that it had executed two Indian nationals for murder and one Saudi national for rape.
At least 48 people have been killed in rainstorms in southern and eastern China over the last five days, with 37 succumbing to lightning strikes, state media reported on Tuesday. Twelve people remain missing following the storms, which drenched areas, including the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Xinhua news agency said.
South African transport utility Transnet on Tuesday reported a 15% increase in operating profit to R10,7-billion in the year ended March. Revenues grew by 8% to R28,2-billion, fuelled by strong volume growth across most of the company’s operating divisions. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 12% to R11,5-billion.
The Roman Catholic Church in Manila has laid down a dress code after parishioners complained they were being distracted by women wearing skimpy shorts, plunging necklines and men wearing sports jerseys during Mass. The Manila archdiocese in this predominantly Roman Catholic country issued guidelines recently to all churches in Manila.
Kenyan police on Tuesday killed two suspected members of a banned sect blamed for a string of recent murders and beheadings in a mounting crackdown across the East African nation. Police Commander Tito Kilonzo said officers trailed suspected Mungiki gang members from the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi.
Sara Mampane has been waiting for the African National Congress to fulfil its promise of a new home — what she calls a "proper house", where the only corrugated iron is on the roof and the walls are made of brick — since the party came to power with the collapse of apartheid 13 years ago.
Brewer SABMiller announced on Tuesday that its United States subsidiary, Miller Brewing Company, plans to enter into a ten-year licensed-brewing partnership with Foster’s Group. Under the new arrangement, brewing of the Foster’s Lager and Special Bitter brands sold in the US will transfer from Molson Coors of Canada to Miller’s breweries.
Aborigines on Tuesday said the government was trying to steal their land under the guise of responding to a crisis that Prime Minister John Howard has labelled Australia’s own Hurricane Katrina. Canberra began deploying police and soldiers to the Northern Territory outback this week under a controversial plan to combat widespread child sex abuse in Aboriginal communities.
South Africa’s edition of the world-spanning Live Earth concerts, a fund-raising event on July 7 to combat global warming, will be held at the Coca-Cola Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg, not at Maropeng at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site as previously reported.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Indigenisation and Empowerment, Paul Mangwana, has said the government will force foreign-owned mining firms in the country to cede controlling shareholding to indigenous Zimbabweans before the end of the year. He said the new Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill will become law by August.
Laboratory tests in Ghana confirmed that the H5N1 bird-flu virus caused the sudden deaths of 2 000 chickens at a farm near Togo’s capital, Lomé, the World Health Organisation representative in Togo said on Friday. It is the first time the virus has been detected in Togo, the seventh West African nation to have reported an outbreak.
A pig in a tutu, a porker on a bike, a hog on a drip — it was no ordinary parade that snaked its way through the Philippine town of Balayan on Sunday. In Balayan, south of Manila, a centuries-old religious festival is all that’s needed to kill, clothe, parade and consume the neighbourhood pigs.
Young Australian men who drive too fast have had the size of their manhood questioned in the latest drive by anti-speeding campaigners to cut road deaths. The below-the-belt television ads show women noticing a young man roaring past and then turning scornfully to their friends and wiggling their little fingers.
More than 200 people were killed as torrential rain and thunderstorms lashed the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes and causing widespread power outages. Gale-force winds uprooted trees and power pylons and blew down roofs and walls, crushing and electrocuting scores of victims.
Scientists have developed a novel way to combat one of the world’s stickiest and most expensive maritime problems: the encrusting of ships’ hulls by algae and barnacles. They have created a special coating that is engineered to a scale of a millionth of a millimetre. Organisms that try to hitch a ride will simply slip off.
Unless growth in Africa reaches an average of 7% per annum, the continent will fail to redress current poverty levels. Although Africa is experiencing its highest growth levels in three decades, it will fail to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015 unless growth accelerates, says the Africa Competitiveness Report.
Meanwhile, elsewhere at the Cape Town Book Fair … Relative obscurity brought solitude, and solitude brought time; and with them came a chance to look around at the other stalls, and to wonder about the nature of book fairs and book signings, and to watch my autographing pen rust.
Sitting in his snug log cabin next to the swirling Bystraya river, Alexander explained when he went fishing. "Sometimes we do in the day. Sometimes we do it at night. There’s no set time," he admitted, passing round a tub of mouth-wateringly delicious wild salmon and a chunk of brown bread.
What can trade unions, employers and the state do to reduce violent intimidation during strikes — which all observers agree is on the increase? <i>Matuma Letsoalo</i> asked Grahamstown-based advocate John Grogan, and Frans Baleni, the general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, for their practical proposals.
More strikes loom in major sectors of the economy, with labour watchers suggesting that the worker militancy surrounding the public-service strike is feeding into other pay disputes. Strikingly, many of the disputes involve black and white unions.
On paper, Proudly South African probably seemed like a good idea. In practice, it’s turned out rather differently.
Lewis Hamilton may be the hottest property in Formula One, but he was brought back down to earth with a bump on Thursday while taking a go-kart for a spin around a central London square. A video on the BBC News website showed the Briton racing a customised Mercedes-McLaren kart around a tight circuit, only to overcook a right-hand bend.
Police in India have charged a three-year-old boy for allegedly leading a group of rioters and firing at security personnel, the toddler’s uncle said on Thursday. The incident dates back to a clash in the eastern state of Bihar between villagers and police in January, when officers were pelted with stones and shot at, Dhruv Kumar Jha said.
Zimbabwe has set up a task force to monitor prices of basic goods and probe shortages fuelling the country’s runaway inflation, a Cabinet minister said Thursday. "The task force is being set up to monitor the prices [of goods] and their disappearance from the formal market," Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu said.
In an edited extract from the Africa Remix catalogue, critic and exhibition curator Simon Njami looks at the place of the African artist in society and the quest by artists to own their own territories.
"I’ve added you as a friend on Facebook…" This plaintive introduction to the web’s fastest-growing social phenomenon has been appearing with growing frequency in email inboxes across the world as what started life as a way for American college friends to stay in touch has become one of the internet’s hottest properties.
The Auckland Park top brass are quick to impute sinister motives when anyone suggests that the SABC behaves like a state broadcaster rather than the independent public service institution it is supposed to have become. But they keep on giving us good reasons to do just that.
Contamination of the Aids drug Viracept created panic among HIV-positive Zambians on antiretroviral therapy.
A horse was detained by police on Tuesday during an arrest operation over the theft of a vehicle in South Africa’s Soweto township. "We have apprehended a horse and two suspects for being in possession of a suspected stolen vehicle," police spokesperson Captain Lindiwe Mbatha said.
A 47-year-old South Korean man has been arrested for faking his death with the help of his wife in an attempt to elude police on his trail over a theft, a news report said on Wednesday. Police had had difficulty hunting down the suspected burglar, identified only by his last name, Chung, as all official records showed him dead for the past three years.