Alex Clark The End of Alice by AM Homes (Anchor, R69,95) This novel, an everyday tale of paedophilia and child murder in middle-class America, is published in paperback plastered with the panegyrics of American critics, united mainly by their admiration for AM Homes’s horrifyingly “real” treatment of a taboo subject. At the same time, the […]

John Seiler Important questions have been asked about the still-unresolved collapse of most major Pacific Rim financial markets and economies, but the common conclusion is flawed: that the Asian governments involved, and by extension this and other African governments, have a minimal role to play in dealing with the complex mix of economic and political […]

Mungo Soggot and Wonder Hlongwa The man who is likely to become deputy president of South Africa has been taken to court for not repaying his R120 000 overdraft and for failing to honour payments on a R400 000 home loan. Standard Bank confirmed this week that it successfully obtained judgment against Jacob Zuma — […]

an angel of death When American doctor Michael Swango successfully sued his bosses at a rural Zimbabwean hospital for wrongful dismissal, he was aided by one of the country’s most eminent human-rights lawyers and a host of Christians who believed he was a victim of malicious rumours and professional jealousy. They little suspected that the […]

Success story Netscape posted a loss for the first time and axed 400 jobs last month, reports Mark Tran The trophies on display in the reception area of Netscape Communications testify to one of the most meteoric successes in Silicon Valley. Given by trade magazines, the awards cite Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen, who founded […]

James Wood Underworld seems to me an achieved failure, of a kind any novelist might have been proud to produce. It is so often well- written, so punctually intelligent, so serious and ambitious, that it almost produces its own antibodies and makes criticism a small germ. One faults this novel warily, because DeLillo is an […]

Jack Schofield Three leading members of the computer industry, several United States-based telephone companies and two dozen other suppliers got together at last week’s ComNet conference in Washington DC to back a new communications standard that works 30 to 50 times faster than today’s modems. The new system, called DSL Lite, also enables phone companies […]

Clandestine flights carrying arms and supplies to Unita in Angola will be curtailed after disclosures, reports John Grobler The arrest of nine South African men when their DC-4 was forced down by an Angolan Air Force Mig-21 at Menongue, the provincial capital of Cuando Cubango, two weeks ago, appears to have spelled the end — […]

Wally Lambert As stock markets across the globe continue to react with no apparent logic to troubles in the East, there are few investors who haven’t considered cashing in their unit trusts for a holiday destination where nobody’s heard of “Asian flu”. Others will be looking to their “friendly” financial advisers while scouring the economic […]

FRIDAY, 10.30AM: ALL-Africa pole vault record holder Okkert Brits has been suspended from competing in Friday night’s European indoor meeting in Germany after Athletics South Africa informed the International Amateur Athletics Federation that he is on SA’s team to take on Russia in a Test match in Pretoria on Saturday and therefore does not have […]