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/ 27 November 2001

Nevirapine can ‘save thousands of babies’

CLAIRE KEETON, Pretoria | Tuesday THE anti-AIDS drug Nevirapine could save the lives of thousands of newborn babies every year in South Africa if the government made it freely available, a leading anti-Aids group said on Monday in a landmark legal case against the government. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is trying to force the […]

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/ 27 November 2001

Nigeria scrambles to save huge telecoms sale

OLA AWONIYI, Abuja | Tuesday NIGERIA’S privatisation agency scrambled on Monday to rescue a $1,3-billion dollar sale of a controlling stake in the state-run telecoms agency after last minute hitches stopped the deal. On Thursday, Vice President Atiku Abubakar was scheduled to preside over the signing of documents between the government and an international consortium, […]

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/ 27 November 2001

POET’S SON ARRESTED FOR INTERNET IMMORALITY

EGYPTIAN police have arrested the son of a poet and playwright who posted his father’s unpublished and allegedly obscene magnum opus on the web, his lawyer said on Sunday. Shohdy Naguib was arrested Thursday night on charges of “distributing immoral materials” for having published his father’s poem on a server outside of Egypt. The prosecutor […]

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/ 27 November 2001

Press freedom? 56 reporters killed in 2001

Johannesburg | Tuesday PRESS freedom has come under attack in virtually every region of the world this year, with an alarming number of journalists killed or imprisoned, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) said on Monday. The Paris-based organisation said in a statement that 56 journalists have been killed worldwide this year — 41 of […]

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/ 27 November 2001

Hellish scenes in Nigeria’s cholera city

AMINU ABUBAKAR, Kano | Tuesday LYING on a stretcher covered in his own excrement, a young man pleaded on Monday for help from exhausted hospital workers and volunteers, overwhelmed by a cholera outbreak here. The young mechanical apprentice, surrounded by hundreds of other cholera sufferers in Kano’s Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), pleaded in vain. There […]

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/ 27 November 2001

ZIMBABWE FARMER SHOT, WOUNDED

A farmer in Zimbabwe has been shot by unknown assailants and is in a critical condition in Harare, a representative for the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) said on Monday. CFU representative Jenni Williams said it appeared that Alan Bradley had been ambushed on his farm in the Macheke area, about 80 kilometres southeast of Harare, […]

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/ 27 November 2001

INVESTEC ACQUIRES MERRILL LYNCH CLIENT BOOK

SPECIALIST banking group Investec has acquired Merrill Lynch South Africa’s private client operation in Cape Town. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Said CEO Stephen Koseff on Tuesday: “Investec has sought to offer its clients the best in products and services, including advice, structured lending, stock […]

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/ 27 November 2001

SKI’S THE LIMIT WHEN LESOTHO RESORT OPENS

EMPLOYMENT and tourism are set to receive a major boost in Lesotho in June next year when a new state-of-the-art ski resort opens in the country’s Highlands. With the rand devaluing to record lows against the US dollar and the lack of skiing opportunities during the northern hemisphere summer, the resort expects an influx of […]

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/ 27 November 2001

Small businesses, big problems

Pretoria | Monday THE government’s endeavour to stimulate SME (small and micro enterprise) development is not achieving the desired results, according to a Unisa study. SMEs are still constrained by various factors ranging from a lack of access to information, capital, training and other types of enterprise development resources and facilities to poor regulation and […]