South Africa, World
While you were sleeping: 1 December 2017
Argentina gives up sub crew hunt, Zimbabwe's military creep gets creepier, and scallops have lots of eyes.
TGIF, 1 December 2017
“How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!”
Benjamin Franklin
STORY OF THE DAY
amaBhungane & Scorpio #GuptaLeaks: How family hijacked (and then lost) a Lesotho diamond mine
By AMABHUNGANE, MNN CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM and SCORPIO
In August 2014 Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane appointed Atul Gupta as an “economic investment envoy”. Thabane said ANC President Jacob Zuma had introduced him to the Gupta family and he had enlisted them “to help scout for investment” for the country. Now new evidence is emerging that the main “investment” the Guptas were touting – apart from in Thabane himself – was their takeover of a Lesotho diamond mine.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
Argentina calls off submarine hunt
The Argentine navy has ended the search for survivors from the missing submarine. Officials argued that the 44 crew members have been searched
Zimbabwean officers now cabinet ministers
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed two senior military officers to his cabinet. Dropping former Mugabe-era individuals, Mnangagwa appointed as foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo, or the ZDF’s face of the
Saudi Arabia intercepts second Yemeni missile
Saudi Arabia has intercepted and destroyed a second ballistic missile launched from Yemen. The missile was launched on Thursday and targeted the southern city of Khamis Mushait. An ongoing mix of Houthi and loyalist insurgents in Yemen has created a hotbed of violent extremism in the country. North Korea’s neighbours, however, should probably take notes on how to bring down ballistic missiles.
Scallops have eyes, lots of them
The world’s single most delicious shellfish, scallops, may have a bit more going on than meets the eye(s). Researchers have established that the delicacies have 200 eyes that work pretty much like a telescope. The number and nature of scallops’ telescopic eyes were established using a microscope to peer into the creature’s mosaic of eyeballs. Eyeballs that remain delicious, one must remember.
IN NUMBERS
92
The number of Russians who died in WWII for every one American.
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today in 1834 slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony.
Humans are the only mammals that develop breasts that are permanently enlarged.
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