Best-selling author Wilbur Smith dies
Best-selling author Wilbur Smith has died at the age of 88, his office has announced.
The novelist died “unexpectedly” at his home in Cape Town, South Africa, on Saturday afternoon after spending the morning reading and writing with his wife Niso by his side, a statement said.
Hailed as the “undisputed and inimitable master of adventure writing”, Smith’s 49 published books have sold more than 140 million copies worldwide.
His first novel, When The Lion Feeds, was an instant hit when it was published in 1964 and each of his subsequent novels has featured in the bestseller charts.
When The Lions Feed was the first novel in Smith’s long-running Courtney series which follows the Courtney family’s adventures through critical periods in history, from the dawn of colonial Africa and the American Civil War to the apartheid era in South Africa.
His other bestsellers include The River God and The Triumph of the Sun.
Smith had 49 published books
Born in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, in 1933, Smith was a survivalist and big game hunter, managing his own game reserve and he owned a tropical island in the Seychelles.
He married four times, reportedly meeting his fourth wife Mokhiniso Rakhimova, known as Niso, in a WH Smith store in London in 2000.
Smith had three children, sons Shaun and Lawrence and daughter Christian, but had been estranged from them, telling the Sunday Times in 2015: “They were important to me at one point, make no mistake – very important – but not now.
“It’s sadder for them than it is for me, because they’re not getting any more money.”
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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