Zimbabwean Information Minister, Webster Shamu, has told the AFP that reports that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was battling for his life in a Singapore hospital are “a lot of hogwash”. It must really irritate Bob when people make stuff up about him.
Complaints of inter-patron racism have rocked Virgin Active recently. A third racial complaint has now been lodged, this time at Virgin’s Hatfield gym, resulting in a man being suspended for spitting at another member. Charming.
This morning we told you about Deadmau5 taking on Madonna via Twitter. He mistook her asking the crowd at a recent concert if “they’ve seen Molly?” for disguised drug use promotion. It turns out she was actually referring to one of her new singles, “Have you seen Molly”, and took to Twitter to correct the electro artist. She even used a pic! Awkward.
Less than a week after Helen Zille’s latest Twitter-storm about comments she made about the state of education here in the Western Cape versus the same in our neighbours – she called students from the Eastern Cape who attend school here “refugees” – she has gotten all up in the ANC’s grille once more with fresh comments regarding the state of health here versus there.
It’s not uncommon for under-privileged people to be given access to basic rights like healthcare, housing and clean water. Brazil has taken this to a whole new level – trying to show that the right to beauty is just as important. If you’re not beautiful, and can’t afford to be beautiful, then don’t worry – just go to the free clinic!
For the first time ever, South African scientists have generated non-embryonic stem cells, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has announced. Harvested from adult skin cells, theoretically, these stem cells can grow into any type of adult cell.
Before you begin to make fun of the headline used for this article, we must tell you that the vermin extractors will also be serving an educational purpose. Johannesburg’s general owl population has been in decline for years as a result of urbanisation, but new owl projects are helping to combat this.
It’s that time of the year again when thousands of lycra-clad cyclists descend on the Mother City for the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour. Capetonians, your road closures begin tomorrow, so here is what you need to be aware of.
Shani Krebs has been living in a (reportedly revolting) maximum security Thai prison called Bang Kwang Central – lovingly referred to by inmates as the ‘Bangkok Hilton’ – since before South Africa became a democracy. Krebs is the longest-serving farang or foreigner in the institution, for which he’s earned a rather tragic reputation. He’s at last been released and will soon return to the ‘new’ SA.
This might turn out to be the most inspiring documentary you will watch all year. A serious campaign is underway to bring down Joseph Kony, the infamous leader of the Ugandan guerrilla group: the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA is responsible for an unquantifiable number of atrocities across Uganda. Human trafficking, brutal rape, and child soldier deployment are commonplace. This is KONY 2102.
Kathryne Fuller, 29, will be returning home to South Africa. She was charged with possession of cocaine in Uganda after she took the contaminated substance with Amazing Race producer, Jeff Rice, last month. Rice died, and Fuller was left paralysed on the right side of her body. She pleaded guilty to the charge, and paid a $420 fine to avoid imprisonment.
Capetonians: on Janssens Road, in Tableview, near the bike shop, this traffic light is sporting a new “green” signal. Apparently, this isn’t the first traffic light that’s been sporting this kind of “green” signal either.
[Thanks, Jake R]
Following further investigation it has come to light that Jeff Rice, the American TV producer found dead in his hotel room in Uganda, died after ingesting contaminated cocaine and not as a result of being poisoned as was initially thought.
Ex-Blue Bulls flanker, Phindile Ntshongwana, has been deemed medically fit to stand trial for the alleged murder of three people (two with an axe), attempted murder of another and the kidnapping and rape of a woman. Happy Friday everyone!
In the Maitland police station in Cape Town 85 staff took a total of 6 579 sick days in one year, at an average of 77,2 days each. Click through for a list of South Africa’s most chronically afflicted police stations.
As Al Green so eloquently put it all those years ago, “how can you mend a broken heart?” A recent study has found that stem cells may in fact be used to heal scars and other damage after a heart attack.
The Twittosphere went a little gaga earlier this week over pictures of a supposed line of Louis Vuitton condoms that the luxury French fashion house was planning to unleash on their highbrow clientele.
The 102 turbine Walney Offshore wind farm located approximately 15 kilometres off Walney Island, Cumbria, in the Irish Sea in the UK, is about to start harvesting the wind. It will provide electricity for 320 000 homes and the project has cost £1 billion.
One Chinese family in Xinxiang City, Henan Province has gotten the Year of the Dragon off to a stellar start, producing the heaviest newborn ever recorded in China, weighing in at a whopping 15,52lb, or just over 7kg!
Just in time to save our flagging New Years resolutions to get in shape, here is some February oomph courtesy of an unfortunate Pretoria man who was so obese at time of death, that it might not be possible to bury him.
New research funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1,24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010: nearly twice the number previously estimated for that period. Oh, and six cases of infection were diagnosed in Pretoria recently too.
Wallaby legend Clyde Rathbone has broken his silence about his years long battle with the depression that cost him his marriage, and almost his life. We’ve got his full awe-inspiring statement, detailing how he fought back, after the jump.
About 1,35 million condoms are being recalled as we speak. They were handed out at the recent ANC centenary celebrations. The reason? The have been found to break during intercourse and others are “porous”.
Barely a month after Nolubabalo Nobanda made international headlines for trying to bring cocaine into Thailand via her dreadlocks, another South African has been caught smuggling drugs. Patience Monkei-Khame was arrested over the weekend in Malawi, after four kilograms of nose candy was found hidden in a baby pram she was pushing.
“My body is a temple, and my temple needs redecorating.” Well-know American comedienne, Joan Rivers, has just undergone her 734th plastic surgery operation at the age of 78. This time she went for a to “tune-up” on her neck, and allowed a TV crew to film the process.
This is both embarrassing and a little worrying. It’s been a while since the province of Limpopo was declared bankrupt and placed under national administration, but now there isn’t even food in the hospitals. Which, when you’re dealing with very sick people, is probably not a good thing.
Weight loss? Disease prevention? Anti-aging? Cup of tea? A very sizeable chunk of change has just been granted to researchers who are eager to show the world the plethora of health properties attached to South Africa’s favourite tea, our humble rooibos.
Cape Medical Response recently got a call to transfer a patient to Constantiaberg as an emergency. But they were stopped at the Chapman’s Peak toll first. According to Entilini Concession – the company that operates the road – even ambulances must stop and pay the toll fee, “irrespective of whether it is an emergency.”
Pictures of what appears to be Rihanna smoking weed in Hawaii were taken yesterday. Whilst she was puffing the magic dragon, Rihanna also tweeted the lyrics to a Drake song that deals with the world’s most beloved green herb: “Kush rolled, glass full…I prefer the better things!”
A recent study by Chinese experts has found that internet addiction affects your brain in the much the same way that cocaine, and other drugs, does.