Box Office Weekend: District 9 Shows Prawn Power

Sometimes bad breaks can bring great fortune. A few years ago, Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings movies, planned a big-screen version of the Halo video-game universe and tapped Neill Blomkamp to direct it. When that project collapsed after a few months, Jackson proposed that Blomkamp turn his science-fiction short Alive in Joburg into his first feature film

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Football in Iraq begins new era

When the final whistle blew after Iraq’s 4-0 win over Palestine at the Al-Shaab Stadium it was abundantly clear this was not just any international friendly. Supporters spilled out on to the streets to celebrate not just the goals from Hawar Mullah Mohammed, Karrar Jasim, Ala Abdel Zahra and Emad Mohammed, but the fact Iraq had staged their first international match in Baghdad since 2002

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Michael Jackson’s boyhood home pays tribute

Michael Jackson was the pride of Gary, Indiana, growing up, and on Tuesday his hometown paid tribute to the late entertainer with a memorial and celebration in his honor. They remembered him as not just the King of Pop or the musician who took Hollywood by storm, but as someone with an unmatched enthusiasm and talent for entertaining even as a little boy growing up in this city of about 100,000 in northwestern Indiana, 30 miles from downtown Chicago, Illinois. Jackson’s first music teacher, Anita Hill, spoke of teaching Jackson to sing “Climb Every Mountain,” and remembered him as a “very energetic and wonderful student.” The principal of his middle school remembered how, at Christmastime how Jackson, always jumped up and offered to sing to his class

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African couples urged to get HIV ‘love test’

Couples in the African kingdom of Swaziland are being urged to get tested together as part of a HIV "love test" campaign. The nationwide initiative — funded by the United States government and implemented by global charity ‘Population Services International’ (PSI) — is aimed at couples because tests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others’ HIV status. “If partners get tested separately, they may not disclose the results and not get the support they need,” Dominic McNeill, spokesman for PSI Swaziland, told CNN.

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Court gives would-be assassin John Hinckley more freedom

The man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan is now allowed to visit his mother more, to get a driver’s license and spend more time away from the mental hospital where he lives, a federal judge ruled. The ruling, released Tuesday, expands the freedoms of John Hinckley Jr

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