A Cape Town woman has accused four members of New Zealand’s under-20 team, the Baby Blacks, of gang rape at the Southern Sun Hotel Newlands on Friday night.
In a slightly surprising move, given the extent to which Google and Facebook have been compliant in handing data over to government enquiry, Twitter filed a motion (PDF) yesterday to block a subpoena that would force the company to turn over the data of one of its users, an arrested Occupy Wall Street protestor.
This is absolutely disgusting, and I’m not quite sure how I feel about the whole thing. It happened though. A group of boys in Soweto, aged between 14 and 20, kidnapped a 17 year-old girl, and then proceeded to gang rape her. The details get a little more shocking than that.
UC San Diego physicist, Dmitri Krioukov got ticketed recently for running a stop sign – which isn’t unusual. What is unusual is the fact that, rather than pay the $400 fine and move on, Krioukov wrote a mathematical paper proving that the cop who ticketed him had a “perception of reality that did not properly reflect reality.”
You thought living in Johannesburg or Cape Town was dangerous business? Apparently not. The people of El Salvador, in Central America, have it much, much worse. With an average of 12 murders a day, peaking at 18 a day early this year, this is a much dodgier place to be texting in an alley.
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.
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.
A Cape Town man was apparently raped by a man dressed as a woman on Wednesday in Observatory. He was sexually assaulted after the “woman” forced him into a dark alleyway. “She” was wearing a wig, black miniskirt, and wielded a knife. The 26 year-old victim has since had to receive counseling after his traumatic experience.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, recently charged for involvement in a prostitution ring, is also being accused of raping a hotel housekeeper – and since he seems to be losing that whole prostitution thing, he’s had his lawyers try to dismiss the case because his former position as head of the International Monetary Fund gives him “absolute immunity.”
A Welsh university student has been jailed for 56 days for a “racially-aggravated public order offence” after making offensive tweets about Bolton Wanderers player Fabrice Muamba, who collapsed with heart failure during a FA cup tie with Tottenham Hotspur on March 17. See the full Twitter feed, after the jump.
A series of violent photographs claiming to be leaked from a gangster’s mobile phone have become an online sensation. Attracting nearly 5million hits, the pics show a young (but portly) Chinese man showing off his love for stacks of cash, German sports cars, parading around topless and dishing out savage beatings. Full gallery inside.
Earlier today, News 24 reported that three men “had died after they were set alight with tyres” on Monday night in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. A 2oceansviber on the scene snapped the following photograph with their mobile phone. The three men, who stood accused of stealing a generator, appear to have sustained massive blunt trauma injuries. WARNING: This will upset sensitive readers.
Popular torrent hosting site, The Pirate Bay has released plans to host their server database in the clouds. Literally in the clouds, I mean; they want to fit flying micro-drones with super-small computers and connect them with long-range radio transmitters, maintaining a network of “Low-Orbit Server Stations.” Which would make police raids a little more tricky.
Julian Assange has found a way to run for the Upper House of the Australian Senate, in spite of, you know, being detained under house arrest in Britain. Which makes sense, I guess. Along with Assange’s candidacy, WikiLeaks announced on Twitter that they’ll be running a nominee against the current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
What’s hot on TV in China’s Henan Province these days? Just a little show where death row inmates are interviewed moments before they are killed for their crimes. The show is called “Interview Before Execution” and it has China riveted to the tune of nearly 40 million viewers every week.
Yesterday, 2oceansVibe reported that ex-Matie student, Jacobus Eksteen, was sentenced to thirty years in jail for the kidnapping, rape and murder of his friend’s little sister, Erin Van Rensburg in June 2009. Now court documents from his sentencing at the Western Cape High Court yesterday have revealed the shocking and sickening plans Eksteen laid to entrap, rape and ultimately kill the 20-year old.
Former Stellenbosch University student, Jacobus Johannes Eksteen, has received a sentence of thirty years for the kidnap, rape and murder of fellow student, Erin Van Rensburg nearly three years ago in June, 2009.
The internet’s under attack again! This time by a United Nations treaty aimed at online regulation. Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, warned strongly against the suggested measures: “Do not give that up easily. You will regret it. You will hate it, because all that freedom, all that flexibility, you’ll find it shipped away.”
WikiLeaks is doing stuff that doesn’t involve Julian Assange’s career as a television personality – in this case leaking a cache of over 5 million internal emails from Stratfor, a “global intelligence” company. They reveal secret intelligence services provided to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, among others.
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!
Convicted murderer, Donovan Moodley has lost his application at the South Gauteng High Court to have his conviction for murder overturned. Now the man that kidnapped and murdered 21-year old Leigh Matthews, and then tried to extort money from her father, will return to jail to serve the rest of his life sentence.
A new report indicates a worrying trend in security conscious South Africa: people by and large prefer relying on private security companies to keep them safe, which is bad news for our official protectors, the South African Polic Service.
A police investigation has been opened in Brazil after a Big Brother contestent was thrown out of the house for “inappropriate behaviour”. The 31 year-old male model was accused of sexually assaulting one of his housemates. A little tricky to dodge such allegations if the house you’re living in is filled with cameras.
A UK judge ruled this week that Richard O’Dwyer, an English university student, can be extradited to the United States to face charges of copyright infringement – O’Dwyer being the former administrator of TVShack, a website that linked to pirated content. This sets a dangerous legal precedent for anybody who does anything fun on the internet.
Once only confined to smoky speakeasies and gambling halls, the Italian Mafia has now spread to every corner of Italy. A recent study has revealed that The Mafia is now the biggest business in Italy – with an annual turnover of €160 billion. Italy’s four Mafia groups also hold about €65 billion in cash reserves, effectively making them Italy’s biggest bank.
Cape Town police arrested an as yet un-named man today holding a virtual armoury of weapons, and a literal pharmacy of illegal narcotics in Woodstock. What was this man on a mission packing? We’ve got the whole list!
Miami taxidermist, Enrique Gomez De Molina, is facing five years of jail time and a quarter million US$ in fines for importing body parts of rare and exotic animals to build a series of bizarre hybrid taxidermy sculptures.
Steal Banksy from Art Series Hotels on Vimeo.
The Melbourne-based Art Series Hotel chain is holding an art-stealing competition, starting this Thursday. For the next month, a signed print of Banksy’s “No Ball Games,” worth ZAR 125 500, will be hidden in different locations throughout the chain’s hotels. If people can find and steal it without getting caught, they get to keep it.
The old saying goes that you shouldn’t bring a gun to an Ultimate Fighting match. Anthony Miranda, the guy in the picture, learned that lesson the hard way over the weekend when he tried to rob the wrong guy.
In the wake of a worrying shift towards censorship of the internet, this is sort of comforting. A recent study conducted by the Swiss government has found that illegal downloading doesn’t necessarily negatively impact copyright holders, as many downloaders end up purchasing the products anyway – and “illegal” downloading is therefore remaining legal in Switzerland.