for you Jane E Brody The buzzword of a few years ago was beta carotene, a substance found in fruits and vegetables that was supposed to protect against cancer. Then scientific studies showed no particular benefit from taking beta carotene in pill form. Now it seems another substance in fruits and vegetables may account for […]

Gustav Thiel : Cricket Professional sportsmen never want to retire. If they had their way, they would play into their graves. Cricketers are no exception, which is why a bunch of the world’s top players of yesteryear are now considering starting a seniors league similar to those already flourishing in golf and tennis. Talk of […]

Andy Duffy One of the country’s most influential ambassadors has rejected an invitation to join Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel’s provincial Cabinet. Kriel, who is to reshuffle and expand his Cabinet in line with the province’s new Constitution, approached LT Links, South Africa’s ambassador to the European Union, to persuade him to take a seat […]

Steve Morris : Rugby There is a distinct feeling abroad that South African rugby, while it has moved up a step on the international level, is suffering from stress fractures at home. It is amazing that the only coach the Blue Bulls could settle on was Eugene van Wyk, a man they had already rejected […]

Peter Preston Gerald Scarfe was one of the most vicious cartoonist-satirists of the Sixties. He made Harold Wilson lick LBJ’s backside, Richard Nixon wipe his with the American flag. He hacked open heads and let the cortex of politics drip to the floor. He was the scabrous spirit of a slimy age. And now? Meet […]

Barry Meier When RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company recently test-marketed a new cigarette throughout Oklahoma, it promoted the product as having a special “flavour” filter that improved its taste. But during the cigarette’s two-year trial, company officials never told buyers that they believed that its special filter and tobacco also reduced many of the most dangerous […]

Science clashes with tradition over the corpse of an ancient princess. James Meek reports from Novosibirsk The princess lies in a glass casket on the West Siberian plain alongside her kinsman. She is naked save for a scrap of gauze draped across the top of her legs. Tattooed beasts – part griffin, part deer, part […]

THURSDAY, 11.00AM: The emigration tide seems to have turned, according to latest Central Statistical Service fgures. Immigration and emigration figures released on Wednesday show that less people are leaving, and more people are entering the country. The figures show a 24% decline in the number of self-declared emigrants from South Africa during July 1997 compared […]