Not so long ago Glaxo-Wellcome promoted AZT as a miracle monotherapy treatment for "HIV-infection" - and claimed that they had proved it scientifically. While they made billions on the basis of that claim, independent researchers were checking the statistics and discovering that their miracle cure was killing rather than curing people.

New Zealand has just introduced a noble law to extend human rights to our closest animal relatives - the convivial, sociable oh-so-human great apes. But in SA we remember and mourn a once-famous chimp called Jackie - star of Boswell Wilke's circus and, poignantly, of Sleeping Beauty on Ice - and bring to light some very weird and disturbing aspects of his cruel demise.

In the new SA, why be shy, why be humble? George Gaitanellis is pissed off. He's even been on Felicia to complain. His scheme - or was it a scam? - on Jo'burg station was going swimmingly until first the Nigerians (he claims), then Telkom and, finally, one sunnavabitch emigrating lawyer closed him down.

Little old ladies at the Cape don't leave their property and pearls to the local dogs' home or orphanage any more. Take, for example, the case of Paddy Policansky, a most unusual woman. While she was famous for her contributions to animal charities, and had a sign on her gate reading "Beware of the dog", she never, ever, kept a dog. The ferocious barking noises discouraging callers were being made by the old lady herself. She went to her grave as per the instructions in her will - unaccompanied and without any ceremony. That was not the most remarkable provision in the new will she had drawn up only months before her death. Whereas in her previous will she had left major bequests to relatives, they were now excluded in favour of the attorney who helped her draw up the will.

Problems with micro-loans and handsome management bonuses, Boland bank is turning out to be a major headache for BoE.

The life and times of Judy Koch.

A family feud breaks out in one of SA's most famous - if not quite most prestigious - old families, as Frank and Joyce's children scramble for control of the R150 million odd that they placed in various trusts over the years. In the thick of things we find the more than somewhat unconventional and determined Waring granddaughter, Judy - now resident in Australia - who writes to her better-known mum, Adrienne Koch: "We're off to war, now fuck the chitter-chatter."

At the trial of Neville van der Merwe S A Reserve Bank's lawyers intervene once more - this time they ask a British court to keep it all secret.

After a spill of poisonous gasses over the Cape township of Macassar you can be sure of one thing - if anyone is going to get compensated, the lawyers will be first in line. Sure enough, somehow one of the country's largest legal firms manages to end up representing both the defendant and - secretly - having a hand in the cases of hundreds of the plaintiffs.