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/ 26 October 2006

SA May tourism up 15% year-on-year

The total number of foreign travellers who visited South Africa during May was 641 700 — up 15,1% compared with May 2005, according to data released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday. In addition, the number of foreign travellers who departed the country in May was 582 120 -– 13,5% more than during May 2005.

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/ 26 October 2006

SA Cabinet vows to counter crime

The South African Cabinet renewed its pledge on Thursday to counter rampant crime around the country, saying ”tremendous progress” is being made, but more community involvement was necessary. ”Government is and will continue to take the fight to the criminals who must be made to feel that crime does not pay,” said government communications head Themba Maseko.

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/ 26 October 2006

SuperSport shut out Pirates

”A win is a win is a win,” expounded famed baseball coach Leo Durocher. To which Pitso Mosimane will surely concur after his SuperSport United team’s backs-to-the-wall, disciplined and terrier-like 1-0 Premier League triumphed over Orlando Pirates at Ellis Park on Wednesday night.

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/ 26 October 2006

UN: Rich countries fail Africa on food aid

Millions of people in Southern Africa face food shortages after rich countries failed to meet money pledges, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday. The World Food Programme said a -million gap in funds has forced it to cut aid to up to 4,3-million people in Southern Africa. That included aid to mother and child nutrition centres, school feeding projects and schemes targeting HIV/Aids.

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/ 26 October 2006

Zim minister looks at loosening tough media law

Zimbabwe acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana says he is ready to ask Parliament to repeal parts of the government’s tough media legislation, but only if journalists submitted to him the offending sections of the law they want changed. Zimbabwe’s Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is among the harshest media laws in the world.

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/ 26 October 2006

Rand play sees JSE drift weaker

The JSE was a touch on the stodgy side in noon trade on Thursday, with the main dampener being a stronger rand. The JSE’s losses came despite firmer global markets and disappointing results from Gold Fields acting in concert with the currency to prevent gold shares from benefiting from a higher bullion price.

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/ 26 October 2006

Morgan Stanley in $3-billion greenhouse gas push

Investment bank Morgan Stanley said on Thursday it planned to expand its carbon trading business through a -billion investment that includes projects related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The move marks a significant expansion of the bank’s existing carbon trading activities that it launched in 2004 within its commodities division.

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/ 26 October 2006

The Manhattan of La Mancha

The huge roadside billboards along the new motorway that ploughs its way through barren, yellowed fields in the central Spanish province of Toledo promise a glittering and happy future to those who wish to come and live here. Behind them dust billows up from trucks that crisscross a giant, uninhabited new town where dozens of ugly, high-rise blocks are hurriedly emerging.