| South Africa's national parks poised for surge in "pink' tourism
South Africa's national parks are poised for a surge in "pink" tourism now that a tourist operator has launched a series of tours designed to initiate gay visitors to the delights of the savannah.
While Cape Town is consistently voted one of the top five gay holiday destinations worldwide, Strider Expeditions says it aims to lure gay tourists out of the Mother City for a fuller African experience. "In South Africa the gay community is not very well served," says Ian Pollard, a former guide in Kruger National Park and co-founder of Strider along with British woman Charlotte Currie.
Gays "feel more accepted in some places than others," he says. Identifying accommodation in the countryside that welcomes gay clients was a first step to launching the service.
Some districts lack communal projects for prisoners
PRISONS and detention centres around the country are overcrowded with about 45,000 inmates in prisons instead of the installed maximum capacity of 22,699, the National Assembly was told here during a question and answer session yesterday.
The Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Mathias Menrad Chikawe, said this when answering Dr Chrisant Mzindakaya (Kwela - CCM) who had wanted to know why convicts who committed minor offences should be in jail.
Mr Chikawe told the House that courts have powers to order convicts with minor offences to serve their terms working on communal projects outside prison walls but some districts, which are supposed to supervise the 'prisoners' at work, have no projects.
Under the parole arrangement, prisoners serving jail terms longer than four years can be released after exhibiting becoming behaviour.
South Africa: Scientists Share Ideas on Managing Kruger Park
About 200 scientists, researchers and conservationists are meeting this week to share new ideas on how to manage the Kruger National Park. The fifth annual Science Network Meeting began in Skukuza Monday where delegates have been discussion veld fires, implications of providing artificial water sources and managing the human impact on the savannah. .
Bahamas resort shows more sophisticated side
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- Atlantis, Paradise Island is known for its water slides and fantastical pink towers, and is consistently rated by travel magazines as one of the Caribbean's most child-friendly resorts. Now the mega-resort is catering to more grown-up tastes with a new hotel, The Cove Atlantis. Set apart from three interconnected hotel towers, The Cove has an adult-only swimming pool, a nightclub-inspired cabana area, and sleek interiors with lighting and music that shift throughout the day to capture different moods. "The idea here was could you have a level of privacy and sophistication and still enjoy the amenities of Atlantis," said John Conway, the Cove's general manager. The 600-suite hotel, which opened March 28, is part of a $1 billion expansion and brings the number of rooms at Atlantis to nearly 3,000.
Ready. Set. Battle!
Then sit back and enjoy the bands as they go all out to impress the judges. The 10 finalists will perform in half-hour increments throughout the day. Each band will have 15 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to play. Fans are invited to show up and support their favorite band. There's a lot riding on coming in first. The winning band receives the tools to record and duplicate its own CD, plus a $1,000 check from Axis Music Academy to use however. To further propel the band into the spotlight, the first-place winner gets an opportunity to play more shows in 2007 than in past years at big events such as Arts, Beats & Eats, Harleyfest and the "Rock Stars, Cars & Guitars" exhibit at The Henry Ford. The first-place winners also get the opportunity to move on to the national John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Battle of the Bands competition.
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