OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kisangani | Sunday 9.00pm. THE rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have announced that they have entered the strategic town of Kindu, the forward headquarters for troops supporting Presdient Laurent Kabila, after launching an attack on Sunday. A rebel spokesperson said: “Our forces have been fighting inside the town since 11.00am and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Sunday 11.00pm. AN aircraft which crashed into Uganda’s Ruwenzori Mountains late last month was heading for a gold-buying mission in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the state-owned New Vision newspaper reported on Sunday. Earlier reports said the plane had crashed in the DRC, and had been shot down by Allied […]

Robert McCrum talks to his long-time friend Salman Rushdie as he emerges from the shadow of the fatwa `I didn’t expect to survive,” says Salman Rushdie. “I didn’t expect to live.” We are sitting alone in the office of anti-censorship group Article 19’s director, Frances D’Souza, in the aftermath of a sweaty press conference at […]

Tim Radford European scientists are to build an antimatter factory at Cern, the European nuclear research laboratory in Geneva. But even though antimatter would be the perfect fuel – 200 times more efficient than thermonuclear fusion – it may be some time before they have made enough to boldly go with Captain Kirk and Dr […]

Wally Mbhele The African National Congress has conceded that it is not yet “fully in charge” of crucial organs of state and has begun an internal debate on how to gain full control of the government after next year’s election. In an extraordinary document assessing the party’s first four years in governance, the ANC raises […]

So how was it for you? Did the earth move? These are, traditionally, the questions couples ask each other in the languid aftermath of sex. Now, thanks to recent events in Washington, another and more urgent query needs to be added to the lovers’ lexicon. Have we just had sex according to commonly understood and […]

Samuel L Jackson has played some seedy lowlifes in his time, yet we love him. It’s the drawling charm, the cool … But don’t be fooled: this is a man who kicked a 20-year drug habit to vie with Hollywood’s aristos. And he’s not done yet, writes Jim Shelley Now that his name has started […]

Stuart Hess Patient care in Gauteng could be curtailed as state hospitals run out of funds because of overspending of this year’s budgets. Government health officials said no additional financial assistance will be made available until the start of the next financial year in April 1999. However, major institutions such as Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital […]

A group of leaders are exploiting a lull in the fighting in Central Africa to broker a peace agreement, reports Howard Barrell African leaders have been involved in a series of hush-hush meetings and manoeuvres over the past fortnight aimed at giving fresh impetus to the search for a comprehensive agreement to end the continent’s […]

Roger Southall Right to Reply It is precisely because of the deep respect which is widely accorded to the Mail & Guardian’s reportage that one simply has to object in the strongest possible terms to the criminally ignorant and politically irresponsible coverage of the Lesotho election by your reporter William Boot. His constant, uncritical repetition […]