Thebe Mabanga The British rock guitarist Brian May once noted how “we live in interesting times. But we also live in dangerous times.” He may very well have been talking to South Africa’s youth. For although some of South Africa’s 16- to 30-year-olds are justifiably despondent in the face of rising unemployment, those who have […]

AN angry mob burned six robbers to death in Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos. Police said the mob put tyres doused in fuel around the robbers’ necks and set them ablaze after they had robbed a man of his valuables. The incidents took place in the Orile and Maza-Maza areas of the city, he said, adding […]

Henry Gee looks at the surprising secrets of one of nature’s stickiest surfaces – the gecko’s atom-powered feet Robert Full’s laboratory is more than usually full of gizmos, even for a modern biologist. Full is a biological engineer. Like an industrial espionage outfit, he and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, look at nature […]

Nigel Fairhead spoke out this week for the first time about the dastardly murder of his wife and young daughter Lin Sampson The early part of this year was marked by a spate of unusual fires that crackled ominously across the Constantia Valley and left a deposit of ash on everything like a veil of […]

FORMER two-time junior lightweight world champion Brian Mitchell has moved up in weight and will be taking on former heavyweight world title contender Pierre Coetzer on Friday. Most pundits give Mitchell the edge of pulling off a win over the bigger and heavier Coetzer. The two popular ex-boxers will however not be donning gloves for […]

Thebe Mabanga IN YOUR EAR The community radio sector has received an impressive boost with the launch of the Coca-Cola Enjoy hour. The project was started in February as a six-week pilot project on Alex FM. The project then became national, incorporating a selection of drive-time presenters, including Alex FM and Voice of Soweto in […]

Tim Adams ANIL’S GHOST by Michael Ondaatje (Bloomsbury) It has been seven years since Michael Ondaatje published The English Patient. Prior to that book, prior to the Booker Prize and to Ralph Fiennes and the seven Oscars, Ondaatje had written two other novels, as well as a critically successful memoir and 10 volumes of poetry, […]

Few South Africans look capable of ending the foreign domination in the Comrades Michael Finch It seems ironic that on a day when the Comrades Marathon is experiencing its finest hour with its largest entry ever, chances of a South African victory on Youth Day (June 16) seem as unlikely as an empty medical tent. […]

Andy Capostagno GOLF It is sometimes difficult to take Americans seriously when they speak of history. For most of their population, old is something that happened before World War II, antique before World War I. It is that much worse in the marketing of golf by the United States television networks, where adherence to family […]

SOUTH African Airways has turned an operating loss last year of R130-million into a profit of R557-million this year, SAA chief executive Coleman Andrews announced on Tuesday. The national air carrier cut costs by more than R300-million and increased its revenue from R8,5-billion to R9,8-billion in the past year. More than 1200 staff have left […]