Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has today written a letter published in The Star newspaper asking that we no longer refer to Johan Kotzé, the Limpopo rape and murder accused, as “the monster from Modimolle”. He says Kotzé is still one of God’s children “with the capacity to become a saint.”
James Lech, the dog whispering shaman, and so-called “dog behavioural specialist,” appears to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. His pilot television series never made it to air, and a number of incidents of animal abuse have begun to emerge – all painting a dismal picture of the man.
Well, this is the fight against sexism taken to a whole new level. The word “Mademoiselle” has been banned from all official documents in the French suburb of Cesson-Sévigné, in Rennes. Formerly regarded simply as the title given to an unmarried woman, the term is now considered sexist, apparently.
Social media feeds, especially Twitter feeds, started buzzing with a rumour that Nelson Mandela had been admitted to hospital a few hours ago. It appears a DJ just happened to watch a programme airing on E-TV about the year that’s passed, and saw old visuals that prompted him to think Madiba had in fact been hospitalised.
As North Korea lays to rest their Dear Leader, we should not forget that the ANC Youth League wished to show Kim Jong-il their appreciation for all that he has done for the struggle of the North Korean people, as well as his many achievements. The Youth League will miss their other Dear Leader.
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association has compiled an infographic showing the penalties targeting gays and lesbians in Africa. Parts of the continent are known to discriminate against gays and lesbians, but did you know that more than half the countries on our continent carry at least a prison sentence for the “crime”?
The DA, and Helen Zille in particular, is furious about a letter they received from Independent Newspapers, inviting the them to advertise in a special feature on the ANC’s centenary celebrations. The proposition for advertising in the supplement appeared on a letter with the Independent Newspapers letterhead alongside an ANC logo, and may be perceived as endorsement, according to Zille.
The Democratic Alliance today launched an aggressive campaign to protest the current form of the draft Protection of Information Bill. The political party is calling on all South Africans to join forces and show their support against the legislation, while also planning more protests.
Back in the day, people used to send each other messages using something they called the telegram. For the singing telegram, a real person actually used to call you up or come to your home and sing to you. Money transfer giant, Western Union, is bringing the singing telegram back and plans to get users involved: karaoke-style.
It’s Just a Plant is an illustrated picture book about marijuana for the younger members of society. The plot is fairly simple: Jackie catches her folks smoking a joint one evening, and then her mother takes her on a trip the next day to learn more about marijuana.
A far right political group, the National Rebirth of Poland party, came under fire from gay rights activists in Poland on Wednesday. They’d gotten word about a little-known judgement that had been passed allowing the political group the use of a ridiculous logo.
Yesterday, the ANC decided it would threaten its members who voted with their consciences against the passing of the Protection of State Information Bill in Parliament on Tuesday. Luckily and unluckily, the minutes of proceedings for the vote have to be released into the public domain showing exactly who voted for what.
Poor Sepp Blatter. Things still aren’t going his way. Blatter said yesterday how hurt he felt after being criticised for his comments about racism in football. Visibly perplexed, he said: “I was very much hurt by these comments because it touched me in my conscience.”
This is why you always double check if you have clicked “reply”, and not “reply to all”, when sending an email, especially when it concerns your annoyance about something. The email in question has to do with repairs being made to a car at a Johannesburg dealership, and, well, it’s rather self-explanatory. Click through to cringe.
Pakistan’s telecoms watchdog, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, has decided that mobile phone operators in that country must block all text messages using offensive words. The list contains over 1 600 words and phrases including, “flogging the dolphin”. Some linguistic purists are expected to be delighted by the move that comes into force today, while George Orwell turns in his grave.
Orion Cold Storage, the Cape-based company accused of rebranding meat as Halaal when it couldn’t have been, is in the Western Cape High Court today facing the music. Orion themselves have laid charges of sabotage, but the two workers charged say they have evidence proving their claims, like the video they shot, for instance.
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, the abdominal muscle infatuated Jersey Shore actor, is suing Abercrombie and Fitch for making and selling t-shirts with phrases like “The Fitchuation” on them. He is also still distressed about the fake press release Abercrombie put out asking him not to wear their clothes anymore.
Nonhle Thema lost the plot again last night on Twitter. She tried to have another catfight with Bonang Matheba because Bonang had mentioned Nonhle’s name in an interview. But Nonhle ended up battling herself instead. It could also be because Bonang has more Twitter followers than Nonhle, and that Nonhle was jealous over Bonang’s new True Love cover shot.
Indonesians and Malaysians don’t like each other very much. In fact, they dislike each other so much that “Hate Malaysia” and “Hate Indonesia” were even trending topics on Twitter last year after Indonesia lost a football game to their counterparts, that involved laser pointers. Now Indonesian students are being paid to support their archenemies in the Southeast Asia Games.
How do you capture wanted criminals that keep avoiding arrest? You lure them with free beer, of course. Derbyshire police managed to snag 19 wanted criminals after they managed to trick them into meeting officers by baiting them with a free crate of beer.
As reported in morning spice earlier today, James Murdoch claimed yesterday that two of his former senior News of the World executives had failed to tell him the truth about the scale of phone hacking at the News of the World, and that they had misled parliament. They’ve both since issued statements and called his new evidence “disingenuous at best”.
Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has collaborated with an Afropop group, ironically called the Born Free Crew, to release a single that is getting some airplay on national television and radio stations. Keeping things in the family, the album’s executive producer is Mugabe’s Minister of Information, and of course, it’s about colonialism.
Orion Cold Storage, a Cape Town-based food distributor, has been caught red-handed lying about an extensive range of food products destined for shop shelves. Undercover footage recorded by an employee on his cellphone between February and August this year shows an employee “blessing” food as Halaal when it clearly isn’t.
In a continuation of its world domination, China Central Television, which produces the ruling Communist party’s news shows and other propaganda, is planning to broadcast English-language programming from the heart of the US capital of Washington DC. It has also built a studio facility in Nairobi, and plans to open a broadcasting centre in Europe too.
This really isn’t the sort of thing you should go around admitting, even if you were disappointed with a poor refereeing decision. The Welsh coach, Warren Gatland, has publicly admitted that the Welsh coaching staff deliberated faking an injury to one of their props so as to force uncontested scrums during their semi-final clash on Saturday against France.
It has been revealed that good old Goldman Sachs received one rather large Christmas present in the form of unpaid interest from Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs, following a long legal battle over one of the US bank’s tax avoidance schemes.
Dr Rowan Williams, otherwise known as the Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered what some of his aides are calling the “sermon of his career” when he addressed more than 15 000 Anglicans during his controversial visit to Zimbabwe yesterday. He told them that Mugabe’s tyrannical rule was no better than the colonial rule it had replaced.
British politics is theatrical at the best of times. They’re dealing with cat-gate at the moment, so it just became even more theatrical. A judge has actually ruled that an illegal immigrant could avoid deportation partly because the judge feared separating him from his pet cat and partner risked “serious emotional consequences”.
Klingon is a fictional language spoken by an alien warrior race in the Star Trek series – those guys that look like they have six-packs on their foreheads. But, according to Jonathan Brown from the UK, it also has some other uses. Although getting laid is not one of them, he does claim it can help people suffering from dyslexia.
Terms and conditions: we never read them, but we know we know should. Here’s what you should know about Amazon’s Fire and the new Silk browser it comes with: they make it clear that the company is entitled to retain your tablet’s unique ID, plus the URL’s of pages you have visited, for up to 30 days.