DEPUTY President Jacob Zuma on Thursday wished South African Muslims well as they embark on the holy month of Ramadaan on Thursday night. “These thirty days of fasting are, as we understand it, a period not only about abstention from food and drink, but also a time of deep spiritual rejuvenation and awakening,” he said […]

The Festival of Living Treasures is set to take over from Womad, writes Alex Sudheim A warm wave of sensuous sound from the four corners of the earth engulfs South Africa this month in the form of the Festival of Living Treasures. Held in KwaZulu-Natal over five days from December 15 to 19, the festival […]

CD of the week Okay, Orbital have sampled Dollar on In the Middle of Nowhere (ffrr). It shows an admirable open-mindedness, if you ask me. Not that you’d expect anything less. My favourite Orbital moment is when they whack the chorus of Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven Is a Place on Earth through the speakers at their […]

Fiona Macleod Six cheetahs from the De Wildt Cheetah Research and Breeding Centre, one of South Africa’s most reputable breeding centres of endangered species, were exported this week to a safari park in China that has been universally condemned by animal welfare organisations. John Wedderburn, of the Asian Animal Protection Network, describes a recent visit […]

Paul Trueman Arthur C Clarke may have correctly predicted the uses of orbiting satellites and artificial intelligence, but boy did he come a cropper with his notion of a video phone. In 2001: A Space Odyssey a character makes a video call home from a space station, and chats to his daughter on a huge […]

Aaron Nicodemus A labour arbitrator has reinstated two top officials from the Medicines Control Council (MCC) who were ousted during a purge of the drug-regulating body’s management in March 1998. The former minister of health, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, axed the officials after the MCC’s refusal to approve clinical trials of the controversial Aids drug Virodene. But […]

Andrew Muchineripi Soccer The first thing that must be said about the third Rothmans Cup final is that it certainly is not what we anticipated last July when the richest domestic knockout competition in Africa kicked off. Sundowns reaching their third consecutive final comes as no surprise, but where did Free State Stars come from? […]

Urban Barney Cohen RIGHT TO REPLY We refer to your article “The SABC’s mounting sleaze” in last week’s edition of the Mail & Guardian in which mention is made of Urban Brew. We feel Urban Brew Studios cannot be blamed if we have come to the conclusion that the M&G, which also happens to be […]

David Le Page Your cellphone calls are probably still safe from eavesdroppers. But now Israeli researchers have discovered how to crack Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular encryption, it’s probably just a matter of time before they will become vulnerable to the listening capabilities of everyone from tabloid journalists to would-be blackmailers. The National […]

Business against Crime has installed another 63 spy cameras in the city of Cape Town, writes Marianne Merten Spy cameras on Cape Town’s streets from Eastern Boulevard to Roland Road near Parliament? It may sound like Big Brother is watching, but the people behind the closed-circuit television cameras are adamant they are just doing their […]