The Star - Fresh, Independent, Different

Busara Promotions have unveiled initial details of the highly anticipated dates for the Sauti za Busara music festival’s 10th annual installment, set for February 14- 17, 2013 in the historic Old Fort in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Sauti za Busara is the annual music event in East Africa and widely known as ‘the friendliest festival on the planet’. This edition will feature 200 musicians: more than 20 groups from East Africa and be...

In a much derided 1986 television interview when asked about his habits in the garden, Prince Charles replied: "I just come and talk to the plants, really - very important to talk to them, they respond." Most people thought him crazy but later on a number studies suggests talking to plants could encourage them to grow. Animals have their vets and people have their doctors, and agriculture forms the backbone of most societies thus its only righ...

SISTER Hyacinth Barden would have been very disappointed to know that Manchester United football club lost the English Premier championship. She did not live to see her team lose the championship to their noisy neighbours Manchester City on Sunday last week. She died aged 102, on May 5, nine days to the the final. "She was very fond of football. Whenever Manchester United played, she would not miss it," said Sister Sophy of Loreto Convent Sist...

Carlos Fuentes, who died Tuesday aged 83, was one of the Spanish-speaking world's best known writers, famous for his prolific output and his use of experimental language.President Felipe Calderon announced the writer's death in a message on his Twitter account. Local media said Fuentes had died in a hospital in the south of the Mexican capital as a result of heart problems.Arguably Mexico's best known contemporary author, Fuentes, ...

Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov wrote poetry in his youth. His dream was to become a great poet. During the 2nd World War he was conscripted into the Soviet army where he was wounded in combat and sent on leave to recuperate. While lying in bed in a military hospital, Kalashnikov overheard fellow soldiers complaining that the Soviets were losing in war because their guns were rudimentary, something that already disturbed him. It was the...

Recently while at a bus station, I noticed a group of people playing the ‘pata-potea’ game and I could not help but wonder how people get sucked into this game in this day and age. Sure enough a few minutes later I saw a young woman who had been playing start to wail saying she wanted her money back. I watched as she frantically grabbed at the conmen and felt pity for her when they shoved her aside ruthlessly – the price she ...

Tony and I are leaving for some well deserved rest. This is the first time we are leaving the children behind for a prolonged period of time. Two weeks to be exact. Tj who is now a big boy is not too upset, of course given a choice he would have loved to miss school for a couple of days but he can live with it. Toriah on the other hand is not too pleased and he has been throwing a tantrum. As much as I long for the next couple of days where I ...

More often than not, whenever a married man dies, and leaves an estate of property behind, only the known family members of the man are catered for in wills. In a case where the man died intestate, the known family members will only consider themselves in distribution of the deceased estate. There are instances where the deceased leaves other dependants, who are not his immediate family, that is, he could have had an affair with another ...