Books

Medic alert: Damage Control

Three young, female doctors battle life in a rural hospital. Review by Karina Magdalena Szczurek. [ Full Story... ]

The writers' petition

Freedom of expression along with the vote - universal suffrage - is the basis of democracy. Muzzling this freedom affects directly print and other media in the responsibility and necessity of their function, which is to keep citizens informed of all aspects that affect life in the country, whether by government edict, the law, economic practice, or the ethical standards of individual behaviour. [ Full Story... ]

Hailing the women who moved our world

Betty Govinden moved her audience, so that we were close to tears. She was talking at the seminar to commemorate Valiamma, the 16-year-old who was martyred during Gandhi's satyagraha (passive resistance) on February 22, 1914. [ Full Story... ]

The seedy Truth

In order to go forward, it is imperative to explore our past. Review by Eusebius Mckaiser. [ Full Story... ]

Zsa Zsa's home, happy and flirting

Zsa Zsa Gabor went home this week to recuperate from hip-replacement surgery after breaking her hip. She had been at the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center since July 17, her husband said. Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the 93-year-old actress's eccentric partner, told reporters |gathered outside their Bel-Air mansion that Gabor was glad to be back. [ Full Story... ]

The game's up but LaDube's not the first straying Mswati queen

Ndumiso Mamba, the Swazi justice minister fired last week when he was caught in bed with one of King Mswati III's queens, has been rearrested by authorities to prevent him fleeing the country with his considerable assets, according to Swazi opposition activists. [ Full Story... ]

Van the man just the business for Zynga

Zynga, the maker of popular social networking game FarmVille, has hired former MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta as its executive vice-president of business operations. Van Natta, also a former chief revenue officer for |Facebook, starts tomorrow. He'll have a seat on the board of directors. Van Natta left MySpace in February after 10 months on the job after conflicting with parent News Corp.'s chief digital officer, Jonathan Miller. Zynga is |also responsible for the top three applications on Facebook, FarmVille, FrontierVille and Zynga Poker. [ Full Story... ]

Kanye believe it? West is back with MTV

A year after his outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West will return. The rapper is scheduled to perform at the September 12 show in Los Angeles. Last year, he grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift as she accepted the award for best female video, saying Beyonce should have won it. His remark of, "I'm 'a let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time" received a blizzard of negative attention. West later |apologised and took a break from music. He will release his fifth album, Dark Twisted Fantasy, in November. [ Full Story... ]

Iran under fire over death sentence

ALARM over the plight of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, an Iranian mother-of-two who had been sentenced to death by stoning following a conviction for adultery, was reignited yesterday after she unexpectedly appeared on state television seemingly implicating herself in the murder of her husband. [ Full Story... ]

Zuma defends SA's strict entry rules

MASERU: President Jacob Zuma has emphasised the need for democracy and good governance on his state visit here this week, but Lesotho civic groups claimed they had been banned from staging peaceful protests against South Africa to highlight their exasperation at new tightened border controls between the two countries. [ Full Story... ]

American Idol owners mulling two offers

CKx, the owner of the American Idol TV programme and 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises, is mulling at least two offers to buy the company. CKx owns rights to the name, image and likeness of Elvis Presley and the |operations of Graceland, Presley's Memphis mansion. Two faces familiar to CKx have offered to buy it: Robert Sillerman, the company's former |CEO, and Simon Fuller, the British |media mogul who created the Idol franchise before selling his company, 19 Entertainment, to CKx in 2005. [ Full Story... ]

Ecuador puts nature before its oil "

The world's first genuinely green energy deal is about to be sealed. In a plan which could be a blueprint for saving large tracts of the planet from exploitation, a greater value is being put on a pristine wilderness than on the oil that lies beneath. [ Full Story... ]

Cheat to fork out R215m

SHE may be mortified that her husband is about to father a child with another woman. [ Full Story... ]

Rapper to cop it for anti-police music video

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux has lodged a complaint against a rapper behind a music video called Shoot the Pigs which police say promotes violence against officers. "I will not allow a rapper who is seeking notoriety to threaten men and women who, in |sometimes difficult conditions, ensure the security of our citizens, even at risk to their lives," the minister said. Justice Minister Michele-Alliot Marie said she had requested the Paris prosecutor's office open a preliminary inquiry into some of the statements made by the rapper, known as Abdul X. [ Full Story... ]

Upping sex ante pulls kids down "

Please don't take it the wrong way when I tell you that it was Cliff Richard who introduced me to sex. In 1958, Cliff's single Move It (described by John Lennon as "Britain's first rock 'n' roll record") topped the charts. [ Full Story... ]

Lohan soon in a New York state of mind

Lindsay Lohan's mother says the actress will be moving from California and back to New York. Dina Lohan said on NBC television on Friday that her daughter, who is in drug rehabilitation, is doing "wonderfully" following her recent jail experience. Lindsay Lohan served 14 days of a 90-day jail sentence for violating her probation in a 2007 drug case. She was sent to a UCLA drug rehab facility. Her mother says she'll be out soon. Dina also lashed out at Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel for playing "hardball" in the case. [ Full Story... ]

Africa must take ownership of efforts to bring stability in Somalia

Two weeks after the brutal terrorist attack in Kampala on July 12, Somalia dominated discussions during the Summit of the African Union in the same city. [ Full Story... ]

George Michael faces new drugs charge

George Michael has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs after he smashed his car into a High Street |shop. Michael, 47, also faces charges of possession of cannabis, Scotland Yard said. He was arrested last month after he crashed his Range Rover into a photographic shop in Hampstead, north London. Michael was not breathalysed at the scene because he told officers that he had not been drinking, it was reported at the time. He is thought to have been tested for drugs at a police station later. The Wham! star, who has a history of drug use, was on police bail after the crash. [ Full Story... ]

Untold stories recapture a history nearly lost

The end of the world was nigh. Enoch Mgijima and his followers, the group called the Israelites, refused to leave their holy village, Ntabelanga (The Mountain of the Rising Sun). [ Full Story... ]

Making sense of uncertainty

Leon de Kock comments on a collection of stories in which ironies are drawn from social environments [ Full Story... ]