Vaclav Klaus is the president of the Czech Republic. He also seems to be a human magpie. See how he spots a shiny pen on his desk, and then sneakily pockets it. The brazen stylus heist, however, took place in full view of the media (with video cameras) during a ceremony to announce a trade agreement between his country and Chile.

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The National Party is back, baby. Wake up and smell the freshly-opened emotional wounds, followed by a faint whiff of “too soon”. Their self-proclaimed goal is to unseat the DA in the forthcoming municipal elections. Good to see that they’ve developed a sense of humour in the wilderness of Democracy.

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Everybody loves a celebrity humiliating him or herself. And, even though Lady Gaga humiliate herself frequently, here she is, falling off her piano stool during a recent concert in Houston, Texas. She doesn’t just fall, she rolls around a bit and then ends up under the piano. Bravo for carrying on singing though.

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Saru has announced that Port Elizabeth will host the South African leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series for the next four years, starting from the 2011/2012 season. The city of George has hosted the event for the last nine seasons. Good for you, Eastern Cape.

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The date has finally been announced and it’s more imminent that you might think. May 1st will be the day Richard Branson will honour the bet made back at the beginning of the 2010 Formula One season. Branson and Tony Fernandes, of Team Lotus, had wagered over whose Formula One team would place higher at the Bahrain Formula One race.

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The Vida parking lot. The school parking lot. That side road next to Caprice. Essentially the natural habitat of the modern-day Mini, which just doesn’t seem suited to barrelling down a dirt road in Sardinia on a Sunday, with some Finnish guy at the wheel. But back in the day, the Mini was a giant slayer in World Rally, and it’s back.

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A new study has found that drinking alcohol primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better. In a nutshell, when we drink alcohol (or take certain other drugs) our subconscious is learning to consume more. But it also becomes more receptive to forming subconscious memories and habits with respect to food, music, and even people or social situations. I’ll toast to that!

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The South African Football Association (SAFA) has decided not to tell anyone anything about the decision as to whether or not the national Soccer team will change its name from Bafana Bafana to something else.

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Which puts us behind Iran. The Global Peace Index, put together by the Institute for Economics & Peace, is apparently made up of a couple of factors – including levels of democracy and transparency, education and national wellbeing. Top three are New Zealand, Iceland and Japan, with Iraq coming in last (149th place).

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Golfers at Carbrook Golf Club in Queensland in Australia can certainly boast testing themselves against one of the sport’s scariest water hazards ever – a lake of Zambezi or Bull sharks. The “hazards” have apparently been around for some time but thankfully we now have a video for proof.

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Patting people down for a living must take a special kind of person. To see just how special, check out this video of a 6-year-old girl being searched EVERYWHERE for possible drugs. It is conducted by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee – the people responsible for the safety on board public modes of transport in the US. They clearly take their job very seriously.

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Well done, internet. It’s nice to know that we have more or less global, instant information sharing networks set up so that people can take photos of Hollywood starlets and pasting their faces over Steve Buscemi’s creepy handbag eyes, and then set up a popular website devoted to that sole pursuit.

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Shrien Dewani’s multi-week tenure at Priory Hospital for treatment following a suicide attempt, has come to an end. Dewani has been moved to a “stricter” mental health facility, after he engaged in a “heated discussion” with a female patient.

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Following a military assault on his residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast politician Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered and been placed under UN guard, thus ceding power to his UN-recognised successor, Alassane Ouattara; this after Gbagbo’s refusal to accept defeat in November’s presidential poll.

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If you’ve seen “The Social Network”, then you’ll be aware of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (a.k.a. “the Winklevii”), who, in 2004 sued Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing their idea. Well their great battle against Zuckerberg may finally be over.

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After an emotional and hard-fought battle on the highveld, University of Cape Town (UCT) became rugby’s 2011 Varsity Cup winners last night against University of Pretoria (Tuks). UCT’s Ikey Tigers displayed impressive courage, mental strength and dare we say it, tiger blood, to beat Tuks 26-16 and emerge as champions for the first time since the tournament’s inception.

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As reported in morning spice headlines this morning, Japan has decided to raise its assessment of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the worst rating on an international scale: from a level five to a level seven, putting the disaster on par with the 1986 Chernobyl explosion in the former Soviet Union.

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The University of Illinois, collaborating with the Equid Research and Conservation lab at Princeton, have put together software that can uniquely identify any striped, spotted or otherwise marked animal with a clear digital photo. Like a barcode!

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Victoria Beckham, fashion designer and once sort-of singer, is considering baby names for her latest fashionable offspring. Rumour has it that, according to The Sun newspaper, “Santa” is very high up on the list.

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The headline says it all. Students from the Siberian State Aerospace University decided to mark and honour Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin’s first flight into space, which was 50 years ago today, by building a rocket out of a guitar. Coincidentally it resembles a Gibson Flying V.

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An Indonesian lawmaker quit politics yesterday after he was caught watching pornography on his tablet computer during a session in parliament. At least this guy was awake, unlike some of the pictures I’ve seen taken during our parliamentary sessions.

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Oh Malcolm, my brother, say it isn’t so! A new, extensive biography on the famous man himself claims that Mr. X intentionally fabricated, exaggerated, glossed over, and omitted vital facts about his life. One such fact omitted was his same-sex relationship with a white businessman.

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The controversial law banning full-face veils came into effect today in France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population. Public wearing of niqabs or burqas is now liable for a fine of 150 euros and a citizenship course; people charged with forcing women to wear full-face veils may be subject to jail time.

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The Saudis are quite keen on flashing the gold and proving just how powerful and rich they really are, even if the people of that land might not be as free as they’d like. But what they’ve got planned next is sure to outdo just about any other oil-rich country: build a mile-high skyscraper.

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South African Charl Schwartzel ended up as an unlikely hero last night. He birdied the last four holes on the back-nine to win the 75th Masters on the 50th anniversary of Gary Players 1961 title. Coincidentally that had been the first time an international competitor had won the Masters.

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In the olden days, when certain people wanted to appear superior to everyone else in the room, they’d loudly proclaim, “Oh, but I don’t watch TV.” Usually in the middle of a riveting conversation on the exact hue of Tamara Dey’s lipstick, or something as earth-shatteringly important as that. “TV is filled with such junk, […]

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Like most things in life, it’s not always the most talented that become household names. And while not necessarily as known as, say Steven Spielberg or Orson Welles, the impact a select few filmmakers have had on the global film industry is undeniable. Sidney Lumet one such director. You need to drink a toast to this guy.

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Watch out for Japan in the next 100 years, because if this continual natural bombardment doesn’t galvanize a national stoicism, ingenuity and will to survive of epic proportions, then nothing will.

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With this whole ‘viral’ thing, many marketing departments are desperately trying to produce the kinds of advertising that get the internet’s attention – often with depressing results. Fortunately, the ad for the Washington Lottery is awesome; it has two dudes jousting on segways. Not totally sure how that sells lottery tickets, but hey.

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An overly tense Sam Jackson was not present on Saturday when over 600 snakes were discovered in the luggage compartment of a bus, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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