27 killed in Pinetown accident

The death toll in the accident which a truck crashed into four minibus taxis and a car in Pinetown, north of Durban, has risen to 27.

About 80 people were injured and taken to the RK Khan and Albert Luthuli hospitals in the accident which happened on Thursday night. Rescuers used the Jaws-of-Life to free some of the passengers from the wreckage.

The truck is believed to have crashed into the vehicles when its brakes failed.

KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Willies Mchunu, who

Why doesn't my fridge have the internet yet?

When the man who came up with the technology that runs the internet talks about how he sees our fridges it's always likely to be pretty, ahem, cool.

But Vint Cerf painted a dystopian picture of our future in a talk at the O2 Campus Party.

Cerf, in a wide ranging speech that touched heavily on the internet of things, joked with the audience about how a fridge will soon be emailing us, but might go a step too far if it starts to communicate with other household devices.

"There are internet enabled refrigerators at the high end with touch-sensitive high-res displays on the door. And we use these at home in order to communicate with each other in addition to using paper and magnets. Now we can have websites and blogs and

‘Walk-in vagina’ attracts attention

 It lets out a high-pitched scream as you enter, then a sneering laugh. It's a walk-in vagina, a conceptual art installation that has South Africans wagging their fingers and scratching their heads.

When 30-year-old South African artist Reshma Chhiba was asked to produce artwork for a disused apartheid-era women's jail in Johannesburg, she wanted to make a statement about women's power.

A view of the art installation "Giant Walk-In Vagina"
 installed at a former women's prison by artist Reshma 
Chhiba in Johannesburg. Chhiba's installation is a a 
12-meter long tunnel made from red velvet and cotton.
Visitors to the tunnel experience the sounds of screaming
 and laughing, which are played inside.
AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER JOE

What she came up with was a talking “yoni”, or vagina in India's ancient language, Sanskrit.

“It's a screaming vagina within a space that once contained

Brain in a box

The thought of robots with brains is slowly becoming real courtesy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences where scientists have now reproduced the human brain from  embryonic stem cells in the laboratory.

Miniature "human brains" have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.

The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.

The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.

Neuroscientists have described the findings as astounding and fascinating.

The human brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe.

Scientists at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now reproduced some of

Funeral of a 'Party Animal' in Pretoria

girls dance at the funeral of their friend in Pretoria

Click here to view the video

Vavi Suspended

CONGRESS of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) chief Zwelinzima Vavi was suspended on Wednesday night, as divided union bosses wielded the axe after a heated meeting to seal his future.

Cosatu’s action is likely to reverberate throughout the African National Congress (ANC)-led alliance, and could

Tsvangirai declares elections null and void

The Pime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tssvangirai, said Thursday the election is “null and void” due to alleged violations in the voting process, but Mugabe has denied vote rigging.

Addressing a press conference, he said Wednesday’s election was heavily manipulated and did not meet regional or African election standards. A poll monitoring group that is not affiliated with the state also said the poll was compromised by a campaign to stop voters from casting ballots.

Mugabe has denied allegations of vote-rigging as a smear campaign by