After a ridiculous amount of time at liberty, George Zimmerman – the guy who shot Trayvon Martin for wearing a hoodie – has been taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder. Due to some oddment of Florida law, a charge of first-degree murder was ruled out. If convicted, Zimmerman faces life in prison.
When Osama Bin Laden was killed, he left pretty big boots to fill as far as international criminals are concerned. So it stands to question, who would replace the world’s most notorious terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list. A mass murderer? Perhaps a system-crashing, government-infiltrating hacker? Click through to unveil the man who replaced the face of terrorism.
Last month Jenna Talackova was disqualified from taking part in the Miss Universe beauty pageant because she is transgendered. But the decision was reversed last week, and even better news has just broke: a rule change will allow any transgender women to participate in the beauty pageant from next year onwards.
According to eNews Africa editor, Chris Maroleng, police in Swaziland have detained two journalists working for E-TV. It wasn’t immediately clear why they had been detained, but it was understood that the crew were on their way to report about marches taking place in the country.
A new bill is making its way through congress – CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which is pretty much SOPA in different shoes. It’s another attempt to give copyright enforces carte blanche to spy on internet users and censor online content without just cause. Which is sort of bad.
Back in 1925, Dayton, Tennessee was home to the famous Scopes “monkey trial”, which saw teacher John Scopes violating a state statute by teaching evolution in biology. Almost a century of science, research and cultural development later they’re still dealing with the same problems.
An unnamed Johannesburg resident was robbed, kidnapped, and stuffed into the back of car on Sunday – but managed to send a text to his girlfriend, Lynn Peters who promptly posted a plea for help on Twitter. Frantic retweeting led to a Twitter-coordinated search by private security companies, who retrieved both the car and Peters’ boyfriend.
Iran’s government, not wanting to be outdone by other censorship-crazed nations like China, North Korea, and Great Britain, are taking things to the next level – they are cutting off the internet, permanently. As always, they only have their citizens’ best interests at heart.
As the concern over threats to Mac users’ security grows, a recent study by Kaspersky Labs reveals one Trojan that has managed to infiltrate over 600 000 Macs, throwing the supposedly tight security protocols used by Apple into sharp relief.
Felipe Juan Froilan, the 13-year-old grandson of the king of Spain, has learnt at a young age what it feels like to shoot yourself in the foot. (A learning which, considering he’s fifth in line to the Spanish throne, may serve him well later in his life as a state figurehead.)
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.
Take it with a pinch of salt, but over the weekend this pretty convincing Lollapalooza internal memo hit the internet. I mean blurry photographs of lineup lists aren’t set in stone, but it looks pretty legit – and includes headline acts by The Black Keys, Black Sabbath, and The Shins. Check out the full thing after the jump.
After decades of fighting innocent and unarmed civilians, Robert Mugabe is now reportedly battling with death in a Singapore hospital. Confidential info released by WikiLeaks last month said Mugabe has prostate cancer that has spread to other organs. According to the report, he was also urged by his physician to step down in 2008, but had ignored the advice.
The long-awaited sequel to the Kony 2012 viral video has finally arrived, and although it’s different, it’s much of the same. Click through for the video.
A juvenile mammoth – nicknamed “Yuka” – was found entombed in Siberian ice near the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and shows signs of being cut open by ancient people. The frozen carcass is believed to be at least 10 000 years old – and could prove to be the first mammoth carcass revealing signs of human interaction in the region.
Microsoft wants you to notice them too – which is why they’ve rolled out a Ford Mustang fitted with Kinect sensors, two Windows 8 tablets, projection screens, and a couple of other neat toys as a proof-of concept to inspire developers to build applications and automotive technologies with Microsoft in mind.
Over the weekend, roughly 300 dogs were rescued from secret woodland kennels just south of Manila. They were part of an illegal online gambling operation in which players outside the Philippines bet on dogs fighting at a clandestine compound. But this is not the animals’ happy ending, as many of them are too injured or too wild to rehabilitate.
A driver in the UK has been jailed after trying to run a group of pedestrians over “like skittles.” The group of people had apparently “been mocking him” as he drew up at a junction. So he did what any sane person would do in such a situation by turning his car into an 80km/h motorised battering ram. Video after the jump.
Russian daredevil Tyomka Pirniazov free-climbed up to the ornate Soviet star on top of the 200 metre tall, Stalin-era Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building in Moscow. Which is made a little more impressive by the fact that he spent the duration of the climb with a camera clenched in his mouth.
Zimbabwe has suspended all weddings indefinitely – reportedly in an effort to curb corruption and fraud. The ban on matrimony was revealed by the state-run Herald newspaper, SW Radio Africa reported yesterday.
Yesterday, between six and 12 tornadoes hit Dallas County, Texas, throughout the day. That estimate alone is enough reason to rejoice that twisters are not a regular phenomenon in South Africa. Add to the equation that they’re powerful enough to fling 18-wheeler trucks like toys, and you’ve got a legitimate reason to break into song and dance down the main street.
The Catholic Church in Ireland has apologized after gay porn popped up on screen during a PowerPoint presentation by a priest at a primary school. Father Martin McVeigh was presenting a talk for parents in preparation for their kids’ First Holy Communion. But when he inserted a flash disk into his computer, images of man to man action popped up on screen.
I was all set to hate the Colin-Farrell-starring remake of 1990’s Total Recall (which had Arnold Schwarzenegger portray an amnesiac freedom fighter from Mars) – but it actually looks pretty rad! Flying cars, memory implants, and Jessica Biel are all things that make good movies good. Take a look.
On Saturday, demonstrators across Europe took to the streets to partake in a day of protest against capitalism. The proceedings, which started peacefully, took a turn for worse soon after they began when protestors began clashing with local law-enforcement. Click through for the video.
April Fool pranks played by people tend to be either cruel or embarrassing. April Fool pranks played by tech companies, however, are charming and endearing attempts at being funny for one day every year – and this year’s haul of PR stunts is actually pretty good. Check them out after the jump.
Nobel Peace laureate, Aung Sun Suu Kyi has hailed “the beginning of a new era” in Myanmar’s (also known as Burma) politics after her party claimed a spectacular 43 out of 44 parliamentary seats in a historic by-election yesterday.
If you’re looking for a job, don’t even think seeking your fortune in Europe. Unemployment rates across the Eurozone – the countries which use the euro – continue to climb and in February were at their highest level since the introduction of the single currency in 1999. Spain has been worst hit, with the unemployment rate amongst its under-25 population rising to an alarming 50.5% in February.
So! The British Home Office announced yesterday that new legislation will soon allow the government to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of every single person in the UK. The Home Office then had to clarify that, no, this was not some sort of elaborate April Fools prank.
Man, it must be nice having the second-highest GDP per capita in the world, like Qatar does. That way you can afford to kit out your police force with an entire fleet of deeply sexy Porsche and VW vehicles, which you can send out on parades whenever you feel like it. Like in this insane video.
Canvasses by lauded South African artists such as Irma Stern, William Kentridge, Gerard Sekoto and Francois Krige fetched over R3.5 million at an auction at Bonhams of London last week, highlighting a significant appreciation of interest in work by South African artists. We’ve got the full list of big sellers after the jump!