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/ 20 October 2006

Forget oil, look at food prices

Oil has been such an economic bogeyman in recent times, hogging the headlines, that not noticed is as severe a threat — food inflation. Food staple maize has been trading internationally at record highs, driven by the world’s move to energy diversification to produce bio-fuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.

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/ 20 October 2006

Meet Chávez the lover

It could be the cover of a romantic ballad album, a man in a blue shirt with a soft gaze and a heartfelt paean that begins: ”Always, I did everything for love.” Meet Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan President, socialist revolutionary, globetrotting firebrand, Washington nemesis and now, in election campaign mode, a lover.

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/ 20 October 2006

Iran bans fast internet

Iran’s Islamic government has opened a new front in its drive to stifle domestic political dissent and combat the influence of Western culture — by banning high-speed internet links. In a blow to the country’s estimated five million internet users, service providers have been told to restrict online speeds to 128 kilobytes a second.

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/ 20 October 2006

African sky the key to tourism

A new research report, which was prepared by Genesis Analytics for regional development initiative the ComMark Trust, says that if the Southern African region is to benefit from the huge number of tourists who will be visiting South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, countries have to start liberalising their air transport routes now.

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/ 20 October 2006

Credit where credit is due

A Bangladeshi economist last week won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to lift millions out of poverty by lending tiny amounts of money directly to the neediest people on the planet. Muhammad Yunus and the bank he founded were presented with the award and the 10-million kronor cheque for his work in creating a nation of entrepreneurs.

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/ 20 October 2006

DG report card: We rate the state

Vacant: Sometimes impossible job with often impossible boss at under R1-million a year. This is an apt description of the post of director general (DG), the mandarins who sit atop national departments. The overriding theme of our first directors general report card is that it is a hard job to do. In the blushes of freedom, straight after 1994, these were coveted posts at the apex of a negotiated revolution.

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/ 20 October 2006

An executive decision

Pearlie Joubert spoke to Patricia de Lille in a week that the Independent Democrats did a political about-turn, coming out in support of the Democratic Alliance’s Cape Town mayor and apologising for voting with the African National Congress in March this year.