A Global Aviation charter plane caught fire while it was aborting take off at OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday morning, the Airports Company SA (Acsa) said. One of its tyres exploded, causing the plane to catch fire, Acsa spokesperson Solomon Makgale said. The aircraft, destined for Lilongwe, Malawi, was carrying 120 passengers and seven
Huge sewage spill threatens agriculture
A sewerage spill into the Jukskei river from Northern Waste Water Works is the worst in 25 years. Environmental consultant and chairman of the Jukskei Catchment Area Management Forum, Paul Fairall, said the sewerage effluent spill started on 24 October. Many environmental and public health activists were angered at the slow response from Johannesburg Water.
‘Racist’ history of gun control
In a Pew Research study from March of last year, a full 64 percent of Black Americans said that state and local governments should be allowed to pass laws restricting handguns. Only 38 percent of whites agree with that statement. Over the years, Blacks have become all too aware of the damage handguns can unleash
‘Blacks should buy guns’
Leave it to Ann Coulter and the like to conquer the ever-vexing issue of race relations, unequivocally internalize the volcanic plight of blacks and other minorities everywhere, rather than simplistically merge theories relative to both to the point of irrefutable resolution— all in a matter of a less than a minute TV sound bite. In
Gun sales soar
Owners of guns have been stocking up because they are concerned about a potential tightening of regulations on assault weapons in the president’s second term. In October the number of background checks on people applying to buy guns, an indicator of future sales, increased by 18.4 per cent. There was a similar jump when President
Google must pay Australian $200 000 for defamation
Google was ordered to pay Aus$200,000 (US$208,000) in damages to an Australian Monday after a jury found the Internet giant defamed him by publishing material linking him to mobsters. Milorad Trkulja, an entertainment promoter who is now 62, was shot in the back in 2004 in a crime that was never solved. He accused Google
Read more: Google must pay Australian $200 000 for defamation
The D-bomb has dropped
by Ilana Mercer In our democracy – for we are no longer a republic that upholds individual rights and limits central power – you vote not for the representative who will defend your inalienable, individual rights. Rather, if you are The Rich – whom the left treats as a reified, rigid state-of-being – you vote
Did Romney kill his own campaign?
As Republicans try to explain their Election Day losses in terms of policy, tactics, and strategy, one factor is emerging as the essential difference between the Obama and Romney campaigns on November 6: the absolute failure of Romney’s get-out-the-vote effort, which underperformed even John McCain’s lackluster 2008 turnout. One culprit appears to be “Orca,” the
Deep South states reject black president
Before Election Day, there was widespread suspicion that enough white voters would balk at voting for an African-American candidate for president that the polls would be proved wrong. It didn’t turn out that way. Barack Obama won a convincing popular and electoral victory Tuesday. According to exit polls, the Illinois senator did better with white
America’s racial divide grows
In 2008, minority voters turned out in record numbers, propelling Barack Obama to the White House. Similar results fueled his second-term victory on Tuesday. A 2-percentage-point increase in nonwhite votes—to 28 percent—sealed Obama’s reelection, and data seem to indicate minority influence at the polls has grown stronger in the past four years. Obama managed to win
Obama re-election greeted with racial unrest
A protest at the University of Mississippi against the re-election of President Barack Obama grew into crowd of about 400 people with shouted racial slurs as rumors of a riot spread on social media. Two people were arrested on minor charges. The university said in a statement Wednesday that the gathering at the student union
Man arrested with genitals in his wallet
An Eastern Cape man caught with his teenage nephew’s private parts in his wallet has been arrested, police say. The 18-year-old went missing in Thebe Locality, Nqobo, on Sunday, said Colonel Mzukisi Fatyela. “… On Wednesday the community found his private parts in his uncle’s wallet. Police were then called,” he said. Fatyela said the
Why Canada is richer than the US
On July 1, Canada Day, this year, Canadians awoke to a startling, if pleasant, piece of news: For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American. According to data from Environics Analytics WealthScapes published in the Globe and Mail, the net worth of the average Canadian household in
Whites’ ‘waning influence’ among US electorate
President Barack Obama’s election victory exposed tectonic demographic shifts in American society that are reordering the U.S. political landscape. The 2012 presidential election likely will be remembered as marking the end of long-standing coalitions, as voters regroup in cultural, ethnic and economic patterns that challenge both parties—but especially Republicans. Older voters and white working-class voters,