South Africa has about five times more reptile species than would be expected for a country of its size, and many of them are endemic (found only here). But scientists know very little about their conservation status and they are increasingly under threat from development, climate change and collectors.
When asked if one likes Harry Potter, it is always a temptation to reply that in order to like somebody, one first has to meet them and given JK Rowling’s profound inability to write characters — indeed, to write anything at all — it is clear that I will wait for my introduction to Master Potter in vain.
Thin Sandar, a chicken-seller in Myanmar, had always dreamed of being a man. When she inexplicably grew a penis last month, the 21-year-old treated it as an awe-inspiring omen — as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have travelled to a pagoda to see him.
A corpse caused a traffic jam on a Dallas, Texas, highway after it fell off a pick-up truck late on Tuesday, local media reported. The body was being transported to a Shreveport, Louisiana, funeral home when it fell off the truck and landed in the fast lane, <i>The Dallas Morning News</i> reported on Wednesday.
Investec economist Annabel Bishop says the bank is forecasting a fixed investment growth rate of 7% a year that, in the absence of significant domestic savings, means the current account is likely to remain in deficit. "This would be exacerbated by the further importation of military equipment under the South African-Europe arms deal," she adds.
Retail group Shoprite Group increased turnover by 12% to about R29,8-billion for the 12 months to July 3 this year, comprising 53 weeks. The group said that if the additional week of the current reporting period is disregarded, turnover growth was 9,5%. The previous 12 months was calculated over 52 weeks.
Britain came to a standstill on Thursday at noon local time for two minutes of silence in memory of the victims of the London suicide bombings a week ago. Meanwhile, investigators carried out a forensic examination at a house in Aylesbury that may yield more clues into the bombings and those behind it.
South Africa could experience a slump in fixed capital formation growth after the 2010 Soccer World Cup, which could hamper economic growth, Absa corporate and merchant bank transport and construction industry analyst John Loos has warns in a report released on Wednesday.
Norwegian homosexuals are set to launch their own soda brand, called Homo Light, at an upcoming gastronomic festival, in the hope that it will help promote tolerance, one of the authors of the project said on Monday. "The goal is not for us to make money but to make us more visible and accepted," Oeystein Mauritzen said.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) demanded on Tuesday that the pirates who commandeered a commercial vessel chartered to transport food aid to 28 000 tsunami survivors in Somalia release the ship, its cargo and crew within 48 hours. The <i>MV Semlow</i> was hijacked on June 27.
South African financial-services company Old Mutual has climbed 26 places in the Fortune Global 500 list, from 304 in 2004 to 278. Each year, <i>Fortune</i> magazine publishes the Fortune Global 500, a compilation of the world’s largest corporations, ranked by revenues for the fiscal year ended on or before March 31.
Asia faces a 150% increase in HIV/Aids infections over the next five years unless more is done, a report warns.
Watching the retarded grunting locally that passes for behaviour in society and the government, you could easily forget that there is a larger picture to human endeavour that isn’t bogged down in ethnic differences, or in the stupid, regressive dredging up of old history of which few of us were even part. Out in the real world, things are getting odd and interesting on multiple fronts.
Shares in FirstRand were up more than three percent in early trade on Tuesday on rumours that it could be a possible takeover target by the world’s largest bank, United States group Citigroup. At 10.10am, the group’s shares were up 3,30% or 47 cents to R14,70 a share on the rumours.
For thousands of years, girls in the area that is now the tiny African country of Djibouti have been subjected to pharaonic circumcision. Djibouti’s health ministry estimates that 98% of all Djiboutian women are circumcised — the highest rate of any country in the world. Now activists are starting to refuse to follow this age-old tradition.
Indications are that the South African residential property market is not generally experiencing bubble conditions just yet. However, it is quite conceivable that certain types of housing in certain areas of the country are experiencing bubble conditions, says a senior Absa economist.
German police, called to a house early on Sunday because of complaints about noise, were taken aback to be welcomed as eagerly expected male strippers. Two officers were greeted by a group of women with cries of "Are the strippers here at last?" when they visited the premises in the north-western port city of Bremen.
Indonesian ministers got a chilly reception on Monday when they showed up for work in casual wear after a presidential decree to turn down the cooling — only to find the order had been ignored. Vice-President Yusuf Kalla and 16 ministers showed up in batik and casual shirts or that outcast from decades ago, the safari suit.
About 2 300 families in Stilfontein are battling to make ends meet after their breadwinners were retrenched when DRDGold provisionally liquidated its two North West mines in March. Simmer & Jack Mines has signed an interim agreement with the provisional liquidators, under which Simmers will restart the mines.
A potential strike action by over 190Â 000 workers in the steel and engineering industry has been averted, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said on Monday. This comes after workers in the industry overwhelmingly agreed to accept an offer of 6,8% for lowest paid grades and 5,2% for highest paid grades.
The interrogator pushed his snarling face forward. He was only inches from the cowering man in front of him. "Tell us the truth," he hissed. "Why did you go to England?" Only days before, Zuka Kalinga had been safe in a British detention centre, awaiting his forced return to Zimbabwe.
An Ohio man with the breasts of a woman has been charged with indecent exposure after he was spotted shirtless. "He’s a guy. He’s real tall, and he’s got a full set of breasts," assistant Cincinnati solicitor Kevin Donovan told the <i>Cincinnati Post</i>.
Fifty years after the adoption of the Freedom Charter, we are discovering that there is some fine print that wasn’t there before, writes Mike van Graan.
About 200Â 000 municipal workers will down tools next Tuesday during a one-day nationwide strike. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union said on Friday they have arranged 60 marches in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and several small towns.
More than 50 people died in Thursday’s four terrorist bombings in London, the city’s police chief said on Friday. Meanwhile, Iraqis who face suicide bombings on a daily basis on Friday condemned the London attacks, but many also blamed US and British policies for the rise in extremism worldwide.
Australia’s forwards have, it seems, thrown down the gauntlet. Coach Eddie Jones says there will be no backing down when the Wallabies meet the Springboks at the Telstra Stadium in Sydney on Saturday. So there. Jones says he plans to fight fire with fire, forget about the verbals and get on with the job of neutralising the South African pack.
South African listed clothing retailer Woolworths increased sales for the 12 months to June this year by 15,7%, compared with the same period last year. Comparable store sales growth was 9,8%, the company said in a strading update on Friday. Clothing and Home grew sales by 11,6% in total and 8,3% in comparable store sales.
South African Airways (SAA) is profitable again after several years of massive losses, but questions over the leadership of its new CEO, Khaya Ngqula, refuse to die down.
It should have been repulsive, this giant self-administered orgasm of righteousness branded Live 8. One should have been appalled that the masses were urged to action by Madonna, the hatchet-faced poster-girl of everything that has been repulsive in the West for the past two decades.
A survivor’s account of an underground train bombing in London, broadcast by the BBC World Service, did more than any casualty statistic to evoke the horror of Thursday’s coordinated wave of terror attacks in the British capital. The woman, deathly pale beneath a mask of soot, spoke haltingly of a deafening bang, showers of glass and a blackout as the disabled train ground to a halt.
Once upon a time, there was a magical fairyland called South Khrazania, which was under the baffled rule of a group of deranged control-freaks calling themselves the Association of Nepotists and Cronies. In control of the ANC was an elitist cabal of fabulously wealthy fairies and pixies and ministers and dwarves and elves and trades union leaders all of whom were hopeless addicts.
The stock market in London tumbled on Thursday after deadly blasts on London’s transport network which British Prime Minister Tony Blair said were the work of terrorists. London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down 1,38% to 5Â 158,30 points after falling more than 3% in the immediate aftermath of the explosions.