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/ 25 October 2006
With a whir and a flash of lights, a robot whizzes to the restaurant table and takes a customer’s order, while a second races to another table to deliver plates of steaming food. This isn’t a scene from a science-fiction novel. Rather, it’s the daily routine at a new diner in a suburban Hong Kong shopping centre.
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/ 25 October 2006
Hospital costs are now almost 70% higher than they should be, because of the increased market dominance of a few private hospitals. This is the argument of the Council for Medical Schemes, which, along with Netcare, is opposing Medi-Clinic’s proposed takeover of four hospitals in the Vaal Triangle. Competition Tribunal hearings into the matter were held recently.
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/ 25 October 2006
It is 2am on Sunday and the phones never stop ringing at the Caracol radio station in northern Bogota. The light banter that normally entertains listeners to the graveyard shift is missing. This weekly radio programme, Voices of Kidnapping, reaches out to the thousands of hostages held by illegal armed groups across Colombia.
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/ 25 October 2006
In a moderately conservative Afrikaans environment I unwittingly grew up with the benefit of a pair of formidable gay role models. Both senior academics at Stellenbosch, they were old friends of my grandparents and were regulars at our family soirées. Most years on New Year’s Day we’d all pile into the car and visit them at their beach house in Hermanus.
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/ 25 October 2006
United Kingdom gay rights campaigners are pressing their justice system for the first prosecution for incitement to homophobic violence, because of their fears that reggae stars are promoting hate crimes, writes Tania Branigan.
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/ 25 October 2006
Earlier this month we challenged Gauteng Transport Minister Ignatius Jacobs to put his money where his mouth is: park his official motor vehicle at the office and get around by walking, cycling or using public transport, which he claims is woefully underutilised. To date, we have had no response despite numerous follow-up phone calls.
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/ 25 October 2006
The world’s largest film and music businesses have won many battles against Internet pirates. Now they are hoping for outright victory in the war. Dominic Timms reports.
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/ 25 October 2006
Pressure is growing for the president to lose his job because of his uncompromising stance on the war. That’s President Bartlet, as played by Martin Sheen in the hit television series, The West Wing, reports Duncan Campbell.
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/ 25 October 2006
United States President George Bush, under fire from voters over his policies in Iraq, declared on Wednesday that patience had its limits but said he would not put unbearable pressure on Iraq’s leaders to end the bloodshed. Speaking at the White, Bush said the US was determined to stay the course in Iraq but with adjusted tactics to confront a changing enemy.
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/ 25 October 2006
Two unusual new drama series are on South African TV this month, writes Riaan Wolmarans.