A lovelorn Chinese herdsman who is the world’s tallest man has finally found his other half in a sales clerk who comes up to his elbow, state media reported on Wednesday. Bao Xishun, who stands 2,36m, will marry 1,68m Xia Shujun, who is also half the groom’s age at just 28, the Beijing News reported.
British government officials will release evidence on Wednesday designed to prove that British marines seized by Iranians last week were patrolling well inside Iraqi waters and should never have been captured. The evidence will include maps, detailed co-ordinates and photographs of the area.
A Bosnian court was gentle on a man found guilty for a series of bomb attacks earlier this year after he confessed and said he was motivated by love. "I think that the judge has taken into account Mladen Kragulj’s confession, regret and motive in deciding the sentence," defence lawyer Dragan Barbaric said.
Uthingo’s contract as the national lottery operator expires within five days, but South African Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa "still seems to have no idea" how to lead his department out of the quagmire following the Pretoria High Court’s reversal of his decision to award the licence to the Gidani consortium, the official opposition said on Tuesday.
Violence, red tape and poor access are jeopardising international relief operations in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Monday. "If we don’t deal with those problems, [the] humanitarian effort could begin to unravel with catastrophic effects for the civilian population," he told a news conference.
The outgoing United States ambassador to Iraq on Monday delivered a blunt farewell message to Iraq’s leadership, saying the Bush administration’s patience was wearing thin and urging them to stem the bloodshed. Zalmay Khalilzad said: "Success requires Iraq and Iraqi leaders to make the compromises necessary to reduce the sources of violence."
Embattled businesswoman Dr Danisa Baloyi has resigned as a director of both Metrofile Holdings and Set Point Technology Holdings with immediate effect, it was announced on Tuesday. Baloyi was recently embroiled in a war of words with Absa over her removal as a non-executive director of the banking group.
The owners of <i>Life</i> magazine, which practically invented photojournalism, killed off their publication for the third and possibly final time on Monday. Time Incorporated, which publishes <i>Life</i>, blamed the closure on "the decline in the newspaper business" and poor advertising predictions.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila on Monday defended the use of force to quash what he described as an armed rebellion by militia loyal to former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba. "Order had to be restored at any cost," Kabil said after deadly clashes last week in the capital, Kinshasa, which left about 150 dead and 150 seriously wounded.
French "Spiderman" Alain Robert escaped a jail sentence after prosecutors decided not charge the daredevil for scaling Malaysia’s tallest buildings, a senior police official said on Monday. Government lawyers also allowed Robert to leave the country after finding no grounds to charge him in court, the official said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday denounced Iran for the "unjustified and wrong" seizure of 15 British sailors and marines, rejecting Tehran’s claim they had entered Iranian waters, and warning that the situation had become very serious. "I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," Blair said in Berlin.
South African Breweries (SAB) confirmed on Monday that it would be capitalising on the success of its premium brand, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, by introducing the brand into on-tap draught. Initial availability would be at selected outlets from the end of March, with a planned roll-out nationwide in the next few months.
The latest Grant Thornton Employment Growth Index (EGI) reflects a 7% year-on-year growth in employment among medium to large privately held businesses in South Africa. This is four percentage points up on last year’s EGI which only reflected a 3% growth as a result of hampered employment growth within the manufacturing sector.
It will have been heartening for South African fans to see the recent performances of the national Under-23 team, Amaglug-glug. They have produced a few gems who could be real contenders for a place in the senior side come the 2010 World Cup — and Carlos Alberto Parreira would have been watching their recent matches with interest.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the dire shortage of professional healthcare workers is one of the greatest obstacles to rolling out life-saving medical treatment for diseases such as HIV/Aids, TB and malaria. While donor support to address these diseases has increased, providing funding for salaries and other "recurrent" costs to address the human resource crisis, it has remained largely taboo.
In 1990, Charles Krauthammer published his famous essay on the "unipolar moment", about the United States’s future power to shape the world at will: "The true geopolitical structure of the post-Cold-War world … is a single pole of world power that consists of the United States at the apex of the industrial West." In 2007, most will agree that the unipolar moment, if it ever existed, has passed.
From the time Bismarck and his pals decided to dismember the continent, Africans have engaged in an endless struggle to put the pieces back together. At the core of this process is reclaiming language, culture, identity and a unique way of being in the world. Nowhere is the failure of action more pronounced than in the education of the African child, writes Mmatshilo Motsei .
The Hospital Association of South Africa (Hasa) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the article "Report exposes hospital rip-offs" by Jocelyn Newmarch (March 9). Hasa, which represents 94% of all private hospitals in South Africa, is of the opinion that the headline is inaccurate and damaging, writes Kurt Worrall-Clare, CEO of the Hospital Association of South Africa.
It would be difficult not to get embroiled in the raging debate about the merits or otherwise of Bok van Blerk’s hit single <i>De la Rey</i>. People across the still-unresolved racial divide that is South Africa are up in arms: either about the fact that it should be banned outright for fostering a climate of racial intolerance, backward-lookingness, or as a call for a new Boer War.
What a pleasure to see a confident, happy and ruthless Bafana Bafana in action over the weekend as they celebrated their first competitive fixture under coach Carlos Alberto Parreira with a resounding 3-0 victory over Chad in an African Nations Cup qualifier in Ndjamena. There was a spring in the step of the South African players that we had not seen since 2004.
In the history of human folly, the purple haze of embarrassment must surely flush over us as we consider the crimes that have been committed against our fellow human beings in the name of what was presented as a noble cause at the time: the civilising mission of colonialism and the extermination of native populations.
He was the reclusive, mentally ill son of one of the most powerful and feared figures of the 20th century, and his 84-year life echoed one of the deepest traumas of modern history. On Saturday a brief notice in the China News Service recorded the death of Mao Anqing, who survived his father to live on into a new China that the dictator would not have recognised.
Iran defiantly rebuffed international demands on Saturday for the release of 15 seized British naval personnel, claiming that the sailors and marines had confessed to entering its waters in an illegal act of aggression, and were now to be prosecuted in the Iranian capital.
Jeremy Pelt is a jazz modernist keenly aware of what keeps jazz timeless, writes Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
A complete meltdown in troubled Zimbabwe appears inevitable, neighbouring South Africa said on Friday while rejecting rising international calls to condemn President Robert Mugabe’s regime. "It is difficult to see how a total meltdown won’t take place," South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria.
Thousands of commuters throughout the country will soon be left stranded as workers from major bus companies, including drivers, prepare for a massive industrial action over pay and retrenchments next week. Meanwhile, police have arrested three union members suspected to be linked to violence during the Metrobus strike.
African auctioneers are celebrating after the Johannesburg High Court granted Tirhani Auctioneers an order interdicting Transnet and Aucor from conducting an auction of Spoornet rolling stock. The case hinged on a BEE score, which Tirhani said had been unfairly awarded to Aucor.
When planes flew into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11 2001, it was the culmination of cunning plans by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday ratcheted up the pressure on Sudan to halt the bloodshed in Darfur by calling for tough new United Nations sanctions. In a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country currently holds the rotating European Union presidency, Blair said that "enough is enough".
On Zimbabwe I consider myself a fence sitter when it comes to Zimbabwe. Notwithstanding who and what the fallen hero Robert Mugabe has become, the transformation in land ownership that he has directed and overseen in Zimbabwe is truly revolutionary and could not have been achieved by any other means. My work allows me to […]
Specialist banking group Investec said on Thursday that it is on track to deliver a strong performance for the current financial year. Investec group CEO Stephen Koseff told an investor briefing that operating fundamentals across the dual-listed group have continued the trends seen in the first half.
In human rights week, young banker Bonga Bangani became an unlikely hero. He sent a five-page letter to Investec, his former employer, complaining about how he had been treated in the course of a one-year contract. His story has resonated with the experiences of many young, black people, who have flooded him with emails and blogged about his letter.