Preview of the week: Matthew Krouse Ennio Marchetto, the living cartoon strip, doesn’t need to press buttons in order to transform himself into the 50 famous characters in his show. Present-day computer animators may perform God-like acts in television studios that double up as laboratories for human cloning, but this Venetian mime achieves the impossible […]

A blind photographer. It sounds like a joke, or a novelty turn. But though Aids has robbed John Dugdale of his sight, he is still producing outstanding work, writes Ben Widdicombe John Dugdale lives in one of New York City’s prettiest streets, a curving brownstone avenue lined with lazy trees and 100-year-old town houses. The […]

political home Chiara Carter The National Party in the Western Cape looks set to lose several key politicians to the Democratic Party. The big prize is former education MEC Martha Olckers, set to leave after first being deposed as a provincial Cabinet minister and now featuring low on the regional lists. A number of other […]

On the first day of Christmas the taxman sent to me an exhaustive tax inquiry. On the second day of Christmas my lawyer sent to me, two final demands and an exhaustive tax inquiry. On the third day of Christmas Woolworths sent to me, three maxed accounts, two final demands and an exhaustive tax inquiry. […]

For organised crime in Asian betting scams, read artistocratic mega-punters in English sport 250 years ago. Gambling scandals are nothing new – especially in cricket, write Kevin Mitchell and Luke Tansey Any suspicion that there is a mole in the England cricket team leaking confidential information of varying quality and relevance to an illegal bookmaker […]

One defeat provoked less than subtle expressions of white supremacy, two released emotions constrained by the excesses of the likes of Eugene de Kock and Craig Williamson. Naively increduluous they asked each other: “You mean our side did that? Well there was communism you know.” On the Talk At Will show, where they feel most […]

campuses Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The African National Congress’s main student ally, the South African Student Congress (Sasco), is losing its grip on campuses across the country. Freedom Front-aligned parties recently won student representative council (SRC) elections at the former Sasco strongholds of Pretoria University, the University of South Africa and the Pretoria Technikon. The […]

Harriet Lane NOTES FROM A BIG COUNTRY by Bill Bryson (Doubleday) Bill Bryson, an American who settled in North Yorkshire and wrote – affectionately and very successfully – about the vagaries of the British, appears to have moved back to the States almost by accident. Having written 77 Mail on Sunday columns about the eccentricities […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Friday 5.00pm. UNITA rebels shelled the town of Malanje in northern Angola early on Friday, Catholic radio station Ecclesia reported. Several people in two neighborhoods were reported injured in the attack. On Thursday evening several shells landed within a kilometre of the governor’s residence in Malanje and dozens of civilians were […]

A Bill aimed at protecting indigenous knowledge appears to be more intent on gaining full control over the information garnered, writes Rachel Wynberg Legislation aimed at protecting and promoting South African indigenous knowledge has developed within the context of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s “African renaissance”. The intended outcome is to transform indigenous knowledge and technologies […]