After resigning as chief executive of Barclays Bank in the wake of an interest rate fixing scandal, Robert Diamond was, last week, accused by United Kingdom (UK) legislators of “living in a parallel universe”. This is, however, only one of the symptoms of a crisis long in the making, that is now gripping the banking and wider financial sector in most of the so-called developed world and beyond.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” was an expression often used by my late father when I or one of my three brothers pleaded innocence for a mess-up on the basis that our intentions were good. Few terms illustrate the wisdom of this proverb better than ‘red tape’.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sunday, 1 July. To date, the ICC has started only three trials and convicted only one person, Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, who is set to be sentenced today (July 10).

Brazil is no longer just an exotic country in South America best known for the Rio carnival and its soccer players. It is now the world’s sixth largest economy, the 11th largest oil producer, and the world's largest coffee producer. It is a member of the BRICS group of nations and, more importantly, fast becoming a big player in Africa alongside China, India, the US, France and other West European states.

It is South Africa’s annual ‘strike season’ once again. But this year it has a different flavour. A number of unions are engaged in wage discussions, which could still result in strikes, but the main battle seems to have shifted away from wage demands to the political terrain.

The Vodacom Bulls were slaughtered by the Sharks on Friday night and lost the forward battle comprehensively. Remarkably, they are still one of three South African teams who can feature in the Super Rugby playoffs if they perform according to the script against the Lions at Loftus Versfeld during the weekend. The DHL Stormers and Sharks are the other two that can advance to the playoffs.

Oscar Pistorius was the surprise inclusion in the South African Olympic squad for the Games in London after he failed by 0.22 seconds to reach the qualifying time in the 400m at the Africa championships in Benin. But there were also other factors that probably played a role in his selection.