Western sanctions against Iran’s oil exports have shown that they have fallen by an estimated 40 per cent since the start of the year, according to the International Energy Agency. Separately, the UAE is nearing completion of an oil route that totally avoids Iran. Unlucky, Iran.
Sweden has been handing its Twitter account to a different citizen every week for the past seven months. Which has been great for the most part, with priests and lesbian truck drivers representing the country – except the latest @sweden handler has been catching some flack for trying to figure out “whats the fuzz with jews.”
Sir John Major has been giving testimony at the Leveson inquiry into British press ethics today. Some of his testimony appears to directly conflict that of Murdoch’s, who in April claimed: “I have never asked a prime minister for anything.” Major becomes the first ex-Prime Minister to claim Murdoch tried to get him to change government policy.
Spanish activists are raising a large private fund to pay for a civil action suit against Rodrigo Rato – the former chairman of Bankia, one of the banks central to the Spanish financial crisis. The fundraiser is following the usual decentralized online-activist structure, with members organizing themselves under the #QuerellaPaRato (“Lawsuit for Rato”) hashtag.
Jonathan Shapiro, more commonly known as Zapiro, has been named the 2012 recipient of the International Publishers Association (IPA) award for Freedom to Publish. He’ll receive it for his exemplary courage in upholding the freedom to publish whatever he wants, basically.
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, left his eldest daughter, Nancy, at a pub following a Sunday lunch. It happened after a mix-up with his wife Samantha, Downing Street has admitted. The couple only realised their daughter was missing when they got home.
The Citizen reported over the weekend that Tokyo Sexwale is to be booted out of President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet in yet another cabinet reshuffle. The rumour comes from a “highly placed source” who told The Citizen that “Sexwale has been speaking against Zuma’s government lately. Zuma wants him out.”
On Saturday night, defending WBO Welterweight Champion Manny Pacquiao met challenger Timothy Bradley for a much-hyped title fight. The fight appeared to be heavily lopsided in Pacquiao’s favour and the verdict seemed to be all but sealed, until two of the judges revealed their scorecards and created one of the biggest controversies in boxing history.
As the American government continues its internal adoption of cloud computing services, Google and Microsoft have been scrambling for contracts – what with their being lucrative and influential and such. Sucks to be Google, then, because the FAA just awarded $91 million to Microsoft to have their platform transition to the Microsoft Office 360 cloud service.
Ilias Kasidiaris is a Greek politician and former special forces soldier. He is the Golden Dawn party’s spokesperson, as well as a passionate far-right Holocaust denier. See him take part in a live TV debate, during which he disagrees with, and ends up punching a female member of parliament several times in her face. He also throws water in the face of another MP.
Bob Welch, formerly Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist and succesful soft-rock soloist of the 70’s, was found in his Nashville home yesterday, dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 65. Police reports say that Welch’s body was found by his wife in the mid-afternoon, along with a suicide note.
In a disgusting display of cruelty and abuse, captors tattooed a refugee’s forehead after he tried to flee Syria for Lebanon. Click through for the disturbing video, slightly N5FW.
Ha! Model Melissa Stetten found herself getting hit on by vaguely-famous actor Brian Presley on a flight out of Los Angeles. Using this new thing called ‘the internet,’ she identified Presley as a married, outspoken Christian with a five-year-old kid. So she livetweeted his ridiculously awkward attempt at hooking up with her. Watch it unfold below.
Less than a week ago Nando’s launched their popular #Diversity campaign, which celebrates SA’s rich cultural heritage. Shortly afterward, local channels banned the television ad, which they claimed “trivialises xenophobia” and “could be deemed offensive”. Nando’s are not having it.
Earlier today, the Western Cape High Court dismissed an application from the The Residents’ Association of Hout Bay and the Habitat Council to interdict construction of the proposed R54 million Chapman’s Peak building.
YouTube user, Baracksdubs, is back with yet another great mashup featuring Barack Obama. Only this time, he’s singing his version of viral parody sensation “Call Me Maybe”, by Carly Rae Jepsen.
This weekend we brought you news of Sportswriter Mark Keohane’s alleged sexual harassment and drug abuse scandal. While many claims have yet to be verified, the web is abuzz with conflicting views – some even suggesting that it may finally be Karma catching up with him.
On the back of the release of new and depressing US job data, Barack Obama has timed an attack on Mitt Romney to perfection. Obama wants Americans to pay attention to Romney Economics, and “remember, we’ve seen it all before.”
Nando’s are at it again, and this time they’re tackling diversity, and they’re not taking any prisoners. Their new campaign forces us to face the reality we live in, and just get over it. Click through for the brilliant video.
As Bloomberg pointed out the other day, South Africa’s credit rating may come under pressure as growth in Africa’s biggest economy slows and the government faces the prospect of bailing out the state-owned road agency. That prospect became more of a reality today when deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe said government is looking into a special appropriations bill to give Sanral a cash injection to allow it to service its R20 billion debt.
Two of the three advocates responsible for assessing evidence before the arms deal commission have been removed from the case. Apparently they are “no longer available to serve” for “reasons that cannot be disclosed”. Make of that what you will.
It’s been both a good and bad week for US Republican candidate Mitt Romney as the States edges ever closer to a November Presidential election. He bagged a victory in Texas, but suffered an iPhone Mittastrophe. Read what happened, after the jump!
Well this is awfully troubling. Robert Mugabe, and his buddy, and political ally, Zambian president Michael Sata, have been honoured as “leaders for tourism” by the UN’s World Tourism Organisation. They join the likes of Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, and Ricky Martin.
As the dust settles between the ANC and the Goodman Gallery, all that’s left is for the Film and Publications Board to render their decision on the classification of our dear leader’s “umthondo” after a fraught hearing yesterday, but the how do you classify as offensive something that is no longer visibly offensive? And, what is the connection to “political criticism” in South Africa?
Yesterday was Memorial Day in USA, celebrated on the last Monday of every May. This is a great time for politicians to make some noise, including John McCain. His sentiments weren’t exactly echoed by some members of his audience – resulting in a reaction that may have been the biggest display of cojones in his career. Video after the jump.
Recent polling of 3 600 South Africans between 15 and 35 has revealed some interesting preferences for the next President of South Africa.
Police commissioner Bheki Cele is currently suspended. It is also recommended that he be fired and that a criminal investigation be launched into his involvement regarding the irregular awarding of police headquarter leases worth R1,7bn. But Cele has now allegedly written to President Jacob Zuma, asking to be reinstated. As easy as that.
Beleaguered City Press editor Ferial Hafferjee has published a cathartic editorial explaining the publication’s decision to pull the controversial pre-vandalised image of Brett Murray’s The Spear of the Nation that they have had posted on their website for a few weeks now, less than a day after she declared she would not. What happened, Miss Hafferjee?
It’s not often Juju gets good press. In fact, we couldn’t really remember the last time it happened. But, we’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he wrote this all himself now that he is well into his BA degree in communications through Unisa. Yesterday, Malema touched on some very important notions in a column for the City Press; notions that Nelson Mandela raised as critical 18 years ago.
Chinese users of online Twitter-alike Weibo can expect extra restrictions to the service in the wake of complaints from several authorities that users were publishing “false rumours” on the site, namely a “points system” to track and punish offensive posts.