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Showing posts from February, 2020

Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen
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Gold mine gangs tote AK-47s to outgun South African Police

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ECONOMY  /  8 FEBRUARY 2020, 07:00AM  /  FELIX NJINI Barberton Mines are now using state of the art equipment to trace illegal miners. Gold mines offer soft targets for syndicates that previously specialized in cash-in-transit heists. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi JOHANNESBURG - At 10 p.m. on the second Sunday in December, a criminal platoon armed with AK-47 and R6 assault rifles stormed one of the largest gold mines still operating on South Africa’s fabled Witwatersrand basin. Moving with military precision, the 15 attackers took hostages and plundered the smelting plant at Gold Fields Ltd.’s South Deep mine. While failing to break into the main vault, the gang escaped three hours later with gold concentrate worth as much as $500,000. Violent crime soared through a decade of kleptocracy and graft under South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma.  Gold mines offer soft targets for syndicates that previously specialized in cash-in-transit heists.  Their
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Armed robbers kill four cops during Nigerian bank heist

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AFRICA  /  7 FEBRUARY 2020, 2:02PM  /  ANA REPORTER Picture: leo2014/Pixabay Pretoria - Four Nigerian police officers were killed by armed robbers during a bank robbery on Thursday at Ile-Oluji, in the Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State. On Friday, the Premium Times Nigeria reported that police spokesman, Femi Joseph, confirmed that two banks were attacked by the robbers, who used dynamite to destroy entrances before gaining access.  Joseph said the suspects succeeded in robbing one of the banks, but failed in their attempt to rob the other, which he identified as Polaris Bank. No civilian deaths were recorded and an as yet undisclosed amount of cash was stolen.   “When they attacked one of the banks, they shot dead one of the policemen on duty,” said Joseph.  “But while they were trying to escape, they ran into four policemen who were on their own, guarding a VIP, and they killed three of them, making it four policemen who lost the
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UNHCR raises as fresh round of violence rocks Mozambique

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AFRICA  /  7 FEBRUARY 2020, 8:41PM  /  JONISAYI MAROMO A young boy sells peanuts in Maputo, Mozambique. File picture: Ferhat Momade/AP PRETORIA – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Friday said there had been a dramatic increase of brutal attacks by armed groups in Mozambique over the past months. Recent weeks had been the most volatile period since the incidents began in October 2017.  UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said at least 28 attacks were carried out in Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado province since the beginning of the year.  The attacks have now spread across nine of the 16 districts in Cabo Delgado. The province is one of the least developed parts of Mozambique.  Attacks are now spreading towards the southern districts of Cabo Delgado, prompting people to flee to Pemba, the provincial capital. One of the latest incidents took place only 100 kilometres away from Pemba, said Mahecic.  “Armed groups have been
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Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

-
Image
  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen
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Are there any planets outside of our solar system?

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  Academic rigour, journalistic flair COVID-19 Arts  +  Culture Business  +  Economy Education Environment  +  Energy Health  +  Medicine Politics Science  +  Technology In French Artist illustration of an exoplanet.  dottedhippo/iStock via Getty Images Are there any planets outside of our solar system? July 19, 2021 2.06pm SAST Author Jean-Luc Margot Professor of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles Disclosure statement Jean-Luc Margot receives funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and philanthropists. Partners University of California  provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US. The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. It is hosted by the
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If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise?

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  There are a lot of people, but the oceans are very big.   Rosley Majid/EyeEm via Getty Images If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise? March 29, 2021 2.07pm SAST Author Tony E. Wong Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology Disclosure statement Tony E. Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners Rochester Institute of Technology  provides funding as a member of The Conversation US. The Conversation is funded by the National Research Foundation, eight universities, including the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, Stellenbosch University and the Universities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Pretoria, and South Africa. It is hosted by the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Western Cape, the African
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