Phil Gunson in Panama IF Balbina Dennis (right) had a computer she could visit a web site belonging to an organisation called Peoplink and see her picture on the screen. She lives, on a tiny island off the Panamanian coast called Kuna Yala, from where the inhabitants staged a decisive rebellion against the government 72 […]

A remote-control robot that will pack them in at theme parks could also prove whether life on the moon is viable. Robin McKie reports IN a few weeks, a strange driverless vehicle will be dumped in the Atacama desert in northern Chile and sent trundling over its dunes in a two-month, 200km odyssey. The test […]

Allister Harry in Hollywood QUEEN LATIFAH is something of a repeat offender. The rapper-turned-actor repeatedly steals scenes from her co-stars Jada Pinkett and Vivica Fox in the new heist movie Set it Off, about four female bank robbers with attitude. Latifah is just one in a long line of rappers now making waves in Hollywood. […]

Chris Dunton THE OPEN SORE OF A CONTINENT: A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE NIGERIAN CRISIS by Wole Soyinka (Oxford University Press, R161) IT has been a steady, cynical process over the last few years, Soyinka’s harassment by the Nigerian authorities, the confiscation of his passport and the attempt to seize the United Nations documents he […]

Lyndall Campher THE youth are notoriously fickle when viewing television and the past two weeks of data demonstrate some interesting insights. Firstly, the coloured, Indian and white (CWI) youth and the black youth view different programmes, and secondly the way they view tends to be different. The top ten programmes are: CWI Youth % Fresh […]

Gillian Farquhar TELEVISION journalist Max du Preez has lashed out at the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) and The Flame Lily Foundation, an organisation which represents the interests of former Rhodesian citizens. Du Preez’s criticism stems from a complaint lodged by The Flame Lily Foundation about statements he made in the programme Truth […]

Angella Johnson BABIES who survive abortion attempts should be left to die even as they gasp for breath, according to new guidelines for the termination of pregnancy laid out by the Department of Health, and sent to all major hospitals last week. Medical practitioners across the country have been told that in cases where gestation […]

Freedom Front leader Constand Viljoen has held secret meetings with the editors of leading Afrikaans newspapers. Gustav Thiel reports FRESH evidence of the split between the National Party and the Afrikaans press emerged this week with details of a campaign by the Freedom Front to woo the country’s top Afrikaans editors. The Mail & Guardian […]

Gustav Thiel SOME 1 600 invited guests turned up for the annual Nederburg Wine Auction – show-case for the industry – outside Paarl at the weekend, but only about 50 were blacks. ”We invite people to the auction that will buy the expensive wine and will be able to sell it afterwards,” explained auction manager […]

THE OSCARS: Richard Brooks RUPERT MURDOCH’s studio, Twentieth Century Fox, was originally due to shoot The English Patient, the movie that went on to pick up nine awards including best film at Monday’s Oscars, but Fox did not want to spend R140-million on a film without a star actress. He demanded that Demi Moore replace […]