The septuplets born in November brought joy to Iowa, but doctors in Britain are not pleased by the news. Why? Because of fertility drugs, report Chris Mihill and Sarah Boseley The seven little McCaugheys would not have known, but they were making good-news headlines across the world last month: the second-known set of septuplets ever […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi General Bantu Holomisa’s newly formed United Democratic Movement (UDM) this week held an intense meeting with former Transkei ruler Chief Kaizer Mantanzima and his brothers George and Ngangomhlaba in the rural village of Qamata to solicit their support as the party begins its preparations for the 1999 rural elections. The meeting forms part […]

Until the day he died last week, Johannesburg was Dr Hastings Banda’s second African home. Timothy Walker traces his state visit to South Africa during the winter of 1971 Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who died on November 25 at the Garden City Clinic, was no stranger to Johannesburg. He first arrived on the Rand in […]

Christopher Zinn in Sydney While Australia mourned the death of rocker Michael Hutchence at a funeral described as akin to a state event, police retracted their statement that it was a “straight case” of suicide in the light of the Sydney coroner’s report. Hutchence was found naked, hanging by a belt from a door’s self-closing […]

Angella Johnson Senior black managers in the South African Police Service (SAPS) warned this week that they are no longer prepared to accept widespread and endemic racism from white colleagues, and would strike if necessary to force the police to stamp out racism. Officers from national and provincial police structures met on November 2 to […]

Alex Bellos The Prodigy’s video for their single, Firestarter, was of singer Keith Flint grimacing in a tunnel – and holds the record of Britain’s Top of the Pops televison programme for number of complaints. For the band’s latest offering, the single Smack My Bitch Up, out went Flint and his frightening green-fins haircut and […]

The TRC Special Report is slim on resources but big on ideas, writes Gustav Thiel The team responsible for television’s award-winning TRC Special Report is watching the latest edition of their programme at the Brixton, Johannesburg home of one of the producers. Situated just under the SABC’s huge transmission tower, the room is quiet as […]

Donald McNeil reports on one of the greatest ostrich-smuggling scams of all time Timotheus Voges says he has gone straight these days, but there was a time when he was the most devious ostrich smuggler in Africa. He’s just another businessman now – like any other who owns 8 000 birds that dress like model […]

Is it true that a black face on the cover of a fashion magazine causes a 20% drop in sales? While many white South African models have made good overseas, we have yet to produce a black model to steal the limelight. But all that could be changing, writes Charl Blignaut You know that fashion […]

The end of the Asian miracle could lead to the collapse of governments in the region, writes Nicholas D Kristof As Asia’s miracle seems to fade to a mere marvel, many experts on the region worry that growing economic frustrations risk provoking political and social upheavals. The underlying challenge is that for decades an implicit […]