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/ 3 November 2006

A jewel of a kiln

A platinum microwave oven, designed in South Africa by a Cape Town-based company, is set to revolutionise the global jewellery industry while giving the local jewellery manufacturing industry a boost. South Africa delivers 70% of the world’s platinum resources, yet less than 1% of platinum jewellery is made in the country.

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/ 3 November 2006

Lesotho pension system proves sceptics wrong

R150 seems a meagre amount, but it has brought an end to backbreaking toil and food insecurity for many of Lesotho’s elderly. Two years ago the government of the small landlocked country started a pension system for citizens over the age of 70. Today, more than 76 000 people are receiving a monthly pension of approximately 150 maloti (R150).

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/ 3 November 2006

A cacophony of fundamentalism

Gilbert Achcar: When Arab nationalism, Nasserism and similar trends began to crumble in the 1970s, most governments used Islamic fundamentalism as a tool to counter remnants of the left or of secular nationalism. A striking illustration of the phenomenon is Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat. He fostered Islamic fundamentalism to counter remnants of Nasserism after he took over in 1970 and ended up being assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists in 1981.

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/ 3 November 2006

Bully for Eskom

While the British government is making climate-change combat its priority, South African officialdom is squabbling over who should administer a green tax worth up to R600-million a year. Electricity users pay between R400-million and R600-million annually as a tariff on electricity usage to promote energy saving.

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/ 3 November 2006

Jo’burg lovesong

From <i>Jo’burg to Jozi</i> is a new book in which 60 writers (from Doc Bikitsha to Darrel Bristow-Bovey, Ken Owen to Jann Turner) give their impressions of the city with many faces. In this extract, Rian Malan finds things to praise.

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/ 3 November 2006

I was a teenage superhero

The new drama series <i>Smallville</i>, starting on M-Net this week, takes the tale of <i>Superman</i>, adds a good dose of <i>Dawson’s Creek</i> and presents a wonderfully refreshing look at growing up with super speed and an invulnerable body, writes Riaan Wolmarans.

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/ 3 November 2006

Mango gets its groove on

If new, low-cost airline SAA’s Mango is a threat to kulula’s owner Comair, investors don’t believe it. In fact, the market reaction to Mango was simply to buy more Comair shares. Mango bookings opened at midnight on October 30 and by 9am the new airline had already sold 30 000 tickets.

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/ 3 November 2006

Report: Cluster bombs kill mainly civilians

Ninety-eight percent of registered victims of cluster bombs are civilians, Handicap International, a United Kingdom-based NGO, says in a report published on Thursday. The report, Fatal Footprint, was launched in several countries ahead of an international conference on conventional weapons starting in Geneva on November 7.