Possibility of another Gulf war on the rise With the amassing of naval firepower, armaments and troops – American troops are expected to reach the 100 000 mark by March – in the Persian Gulf region, the spectre of what is called a fourth Gulf war, is starting to take on an air of inevitability. If it does come to pass, few countries, including South Africa, will be left untouched. It is at the...

Adonis and his tattoos
The attractive young female presenter of a SABC magazine programme recently persuaded an Adonis of a rugby player to strip off his shirt so that she could see his tattoos - this had me wondering about a few things.

Final word – the book In our weekly column, Final word, we explore the origin of words and expressions, often exposing an underlying typical South African humour that transcends racial and language divides in a shared heritage. A selection of 50 of these columns is now available in a book.

Old traps loom for coach Heyneke Meyer The more things change, the more they stay the same and history is set to repeat itself in 2012 if Heyneke Meyer, the new Springbok rugby coach, does not learn from the disasters of the 1999 and 2011 Rugby World Cups. Who he will appoint as his Springbok captain might just set the tone for, and the success of, his tenure as coach.

The restless ghost of Libya The ghost of Libya has come back to haunt the US and her Western allies. An attempt to have the UN Security Council pass a resolution that would back an Arab League plan to resolve the crisis in Syria, failed when Russia and China vetoed it. At the same time North African stability is also threatened by further fallout from the Libyan conflict; another development over...