Raoul Ruiz, the Chilean-born filmmaker who made more than 100 films in his teeming, international career, has died. He was 70.
A favourite of cinephiles, Ruiz rebelled against the conventions of film-making in an extensive, varied body of work that did not result in a widely-known masterpiece, but left behind a vast, labyrinthine collection of experiments, curiosities and innovations.
Ruiz died last Friday at Saint-Antoine Hospital in Paris following complications from a pulmonary infection, said Francois Margolin, a producer of several films by the director.
Ruiz had lived in Paris since fleeing Chile in 1973 to escape the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. (PA)
‘Slutwalk’ takes place in Cape Town
Women draped sexy lingerie over their street clothes as they marched through Cape Town yesterday, bringing an international campaign against the notion that a woman’s appearance can excuse attacks to a country where rape is seen as a national crisis.
Around 2,000 protesters walked a route where fans partied during last year’s football World Cup.
Men joined in, some of them wearing mini-skirts in solidarity. Some protesters pushed their children in prams and carried signs declaring, ‘Rapists rape people, not outfits’, and ‘Weak men rape’.
So-called Slutwalks originated in Toronto, Canada, where they were sparked by a police officer’s remark that women could avoid being raped by not dressing like “sluts”. (PA)
Malawi president dissolves cabinet
Malawi’s president has dissolved his Cabinet after anti-government protests spiralled into deadly violence.
In a broadcast late on Friday, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation did not give a reason for the move, which leaves President Bingu wa Mutharika alone in control of the executive, nor say when a new Cabinet would be named.
Anti-government demonstrations across Malawi last month came amid worsening economic conditions and complaints about Mutharika’s increasingly autocratic style. At least 19 people were killed by police. (PA)
Al-Qaeda plans ‘100 Iraq attacks’
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has vowed to carry out “100 attacks” across the country, starting in the middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, to exact revenge for the death of Osama bin Laden.
The terror group’s statement was released on militant websites late last Friday.
It said the attacks will avenge Bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in Pakistan in May, and other slain senior Al-Qaeda leaders.
The statement said the campaign would include “varied attacks, including raids, martyrdom operations, roadside bombs, silenced guns and snipers, in all cities, rural areas and provinces” across Iraq.
Census boycott
Botswana’s indigenous people do not want to be counted by a government with whom they have long clashed.
Jumanda kelebone,spokesman for First People of the Kalahari, said that bushmen, also known as basarwa, boycotted a census that ended last week because they do not believe it will benefit them.
In 2002, the government evicted bushmen from ancestral lands in the central Kalahari game reserve amid accusations the government wanted to mine for diamonds in the area. In 2006, a court allowed the Bushmen to return to their homelands. (PA)
35 die in bus crash
A bus has careered off of a mountain road in south Afghanistan, killing 35 people including women and children.
Kandahar provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayubi says the overloaded bus was travelling through Dand district of Kandahar province yesterday when it swerved and rolled about 37 metres off the road. He says 26 people were injured.
In eastern Nangahar province, spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai says an explosives-packed rickshaw exploded near the car of an Afghan intelligence agent, killing him and wounding four people.
And Afghan army spokesman Najibullah Majibi says a rickshaw-bomb detonated near an Afghan army truck in the western province of Herat, killing two soldiers and injuring three. (PA)
Mexico’s adventurer president Calderon
President Felipe Calderon is figuratively going out on a limb – and literally down a sinkhole, up a river (with a paddle) and over the top of a few pyramids – in an attempt to boost Mexico’s flagging tourism industry.
The 49-year-old leader is personally trying to change his country’s violent reputation by appearing as a sort of adventure tour guide in a series of TV programmes to be broadcast starting in September on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the US.
The president dons an Indiana Jones-style hat and a harness and descends a rope into the 305-metre-deep Sotano de las Golondrinas cavern, accompanied by Peter Greenberg, host of the The Royal Tour TV series. (PA)