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/ 31 October 2003
The Russian government sent shockwaves through the international financial community last night when it took the unprecedented step of freezing shares in the country’s largest oil company.
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/ 31 October 2003
American officials said on Thursday that a close confidant of Saddam Hussein was behind a series of attacks on coalition forces and Iraqis cooperating with the US-led administration, as the United Nations announced it was temporarily pulling its staff out of Baghdad because of concerns for their safety.
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/ 31 October 2003
Israel’s army chief has exposed deep divisions between the military and Ariel Sharon by branding the government’s hardline treatment of Palestinian civilians counter-productive and saying that the policy intensifies hatred and strengthens the ”terror organisations”.
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/ 31 October 2003
Greenpeace is being taken to court by the US government because of its action against the illegal importation of mahogany. Its lawyers says it is the first time an entire organisation has been criminally prosecuted for the activities of two members.
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/ 31 October 2003
Kenya will banish thousands of Britons and other expatriates so that local people can take their jobs, the government confirmed yesterday. Work permits for two-thirds of the expatriate labour force are not to be renewed, reported Peter Odoyo, the deputy labour minister.
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/ 31 October 2003
The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> is committed to deepening and defending democracy in South Africa. This is perhaps why we fail to understand the eagerness of the leaders of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) to disenfranchise the millions of poor and landless they claim to represent. This week the LPM called on South Africans not to register for — or vote in — next year’s general elections.
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/ 31 October 2003
It’s hard to imagine what will be the final outcome of the Hefer commission. Will it produce new information, uncover some previously unnoticed subterfuge or harshly illuminate an existing one? The commission seems hardly able to get itself off the ground. In fact it doesn’t even seem able to find the runway.
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/ 31 October 2003
‘Looks like we’ve made it – Look how far we’ve come my [governor]." These lyrics from Shania Twain would have been appropriate to sing the praises of Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni this week, as the country finally got one hand on the Holy Grail of the inflation target.
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/ 31 October 2003
We regularly hear that one lingua franca, English, is necessary to prevent social disintegration on an ethnic basis, and to ensure the continuance of South Africa as a unitary state. This logic is strongly reminiscent of the ideas of an influential movement in the United States, the so-called "English only" movement.
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/ 31 October 2003
Even while serious fighting continues, the economic destiny of Iraq is being decided — not by the Iraqis themselves, but by the occupying powers and the United States-appointed governing council, almost half of whom are exiles. As a result of Order 39, Iraq’s economy has been put up for sale.