I am sad to announce that legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent passed away in Paris on Sunday at the age of 71. He is best known for redesigning “men’s clothes” for women through creations such as his infamous tux of 1966 and trademark elegant pantsuit. As one commentator put it, “Chanel gave women freedom” in the first half of the 20th century, and Saint Laurent “gave them power”.

In Other News,

Hilary Clinton emerged triumphant from Sunday’s primary in Puerto Rico yet it is doubtful that this will be enough to stop her downhill spiral. On Tuesday, the remaining 31 delegates will be decided as voters in Montana and South Dakota go to the polls for the Democratic Party’s final two primaries. Obama is approximately 50 delegates away from the 2,118 needed to secure the party’s nomination. Read More »

It’s today’s news with Kandy Korrespondent!

On Wednesday President Thabo Mbeki announced the deployment of the South African army in response to increasing xenophobic violence in Johannesburg and surrounding cities. Foreigners are fleeing their homes for mosques, churches, community centers, and police stations. According to witnesses, mobs are roaming the streets armed with clubs and bottles attacking foreign-owned businesses and homes. The BBC estimates that there are between three and five million foreigners currently residing in South Africa. Many are refugees from Zimbabwe.

In related news, according to the International Crisis Group there is a growing danger of a military coup within Zimbabwe. Moreover, the ICG doubts that current dictator Robert Mugabe will allow a genuinely free and fair election to occur since, according to recent polls, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai seems sure to deliver a resounding defeat. The report calls for joint African mediation.

In Other News:

On Tuesday, Senator Edward Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The diagnosis follows Senator Kennedy’s hospitalization due to a seizure on Saturday. Fifty percent of those similarly diagnosed die within a year, the rest pass away within three years. This type of tumor is always fatal.

Check out the National Brain Tumor Foundation to join the fight against this most deadly form of cancer. Read More »

And now the news with Kandy Korrespondent:

On Monday, Presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton made it clear that she will continue to contest Senator Obama’s claim to the Democratic nomination. Responding to the widening call for her to step aside she told a rally in Kentucky,

“This is nowhere near over […] None of us is going to have the number of delegates we’re going to need to get to the nomination, although I understand my opponent and his supporters are going to claim that”

Hilary Clinton is trailing Barack Obama by delegates and superdelegates. In the days since the pivotal Indiana and North Carolina primaries, several Clinton supporters have defected to Obama. On Monday, Obama picked up five more superdelegates.

Democrats are going to the polls today in Kentucky and Oregon where 103 delegates are at play. Obama is projected to take Oregon while Clinton is thought to have a large lead in Kentucky.

In Other News:

Anti-Immigrant violence has left at least 22 dead in South Africa. Immigrants are hiding in churches, police stations, and, if they are lucky, in the homes of their South African friends. Stories about the violence over the weekend featured a horrific picture of a police officer trying to put out a man who had been set on fire by the mob. Read More »

It’s time for the week’s wackiest news stories with Kandy Korrespondent!

A South African woman has posted a list of her soon to be ex-husbands infidelities on the truck of her car in an effort to shame him into paying her maintenance (child support).
The poster reads:

“If my soon-to-be-ex-husband thinks he can:
bed down cheap women,
buy them underwear,
wine and dine them in the best restaurants,
take them on five-star holidays,
take ‘excite’ tablets for erectile dysfunction,
go out boozing each night AND not pay me my maintenance as ordered by court,
and think I will take no action, he has another thing coming.”

This woman is totally awesome!

How to Get Pot in CA—legally: In his latest Op-Ed, Joel Stein recounts his freakishly easy experience acquiring a prescription for medical marijuana (legal in CA). His illness? Anxiety, occasional insomnia, and headaches. As he states,

“The only malady that would have made me more similar to every human being throughout history would have been ‘these painful little pieces of skin that peel up next to my fingernails.’” Read More »

There are still no results from Zimbabwe’s March 29th presidential elections. In my first blog I talked about the growing apprehension of the populace during the initial post-election week. My second blog discussed the legal fights and growing danger faced by Zimbabwe opposition party members. This time we’ll be checking out the amazing diplomatic stalling techniques of South African President Mbeki during this crisis.

In her ever-so diplomatic approach, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this past week that, “It’s time for Africa to step up” and deal with this crisis. (nice job of passing the buck Condi)

South Africa has the largest economy within Africa—giving it major bargaining power with states such as Zimbabwe.

Enter South African President Thabo Mbeki.

He traveled Zimbabwe on Saturday April 12th to meet with Mugabe. Following these talks, he declared that there was “no crisis” in Zimbabwe.

Hmmm… Read More »

Unless you’ve been in a long-distance relationship before, it’s hard to understand just how difficult they can be. My boyfriend and I have been long-distance for most of our 2½ years together, and I still go nuts sometimes.

Whether you’ve left someone behind, been left behind, or just have somebody special in another zip code, use these tips to take your long-distance relationship from surviving to thriving.

1. Talk.
This one may seem obvious, but sometimes it’s hard to hold an actual conversation on the phone. The minutes will fill up with “Yeah”s and “What did you do today?”s, but are we really actually saying anything?

Just like regular couples, long-distance shippers have problems that need to be worked out. When your BF or GF isn’t around to remind you of those problems all the time, it gets easier and easier to avoid working them out. To keep a long-distance relationship healthy and alive, you can’t be afraid to open up dialogue. Read More »

The New York Daily News reports that in recent weeks, several allegations made by students at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls claim that school matrons fondled and beat the female students.One incident claims a matron allegedly grabbed a girl by the throat and tossed her into a wall.

Uhhhhh…OK. Look Oprah, when you said you were going to bring western education philosophies to the African continent, I guess we should have asked - which education philosophies? I think we all thought you would leave out the inner city public school philosophy of beating and molesting students out.

My bad…we’ll ask next time.

The allegations came to light after a student ran away from the school’s dorms, reportedly because the abuse had become overwhelming.

“I’ve disappointed you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” Winfrey told families in an emergency meeting on Sunday at the South African school. The school’s principal and two matrons were placed on leave following the allegations. Read More »

• Did you know that our makeup is causing us to absorb over 5 pounds of chemicals a year? I’m going to go wash my face… (UK Dailymail)

• Some good news for a Friday afternoon! The trapped miners in South Africa have been rescued. All 3,200 of them, thank God. (Associated Press)

• A remix of sorts when it comes to those daily inappropriate teacher/student stories: Advice for young high school teachers. (valleyjew.blogspot.com)

• Drop that Diet Coke…it’ll give you cancer. For real, this time! (dmiessler.com)

• Most important First Aid myth you really should know about: Peeing on wounds DOESN’T HELP. (ririanproject.com)