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/ 12 October 2006

Fedusa to confront Mbeki over Zimbabwe

A South African trade union leader said she would urge President Thabo Mbeki to break his silence on Zimbabwe on Friday after giving him a film exposing rights abuses in the neighbouring state. ”I am meeting the president tomorrow [Friday],” Mary Malete, leader of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) told the media on Thursday.

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/ 12 October 2006

No betrayal from govt, says Maduna

The government could not give in to pressure from ”shrill, shriek and opportunistic” voices claiming the people’s cause had been betrayed, former minister of justice Penuell Maduna said in Johannesburg on Thursday. ”It has not been betrayed,” he told the business community at the launch of a new fund-raising system run under the auspices of The Giving Organisation.

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/ 12 October 2006

Crunch Northern Ireland talks face deadlock

British Prime Minister Tony Blair battled on Thursday to break a deadlock threatening to scupper crunch talks on reviving self-government in Northern Ireland before a deadline next month. The stand-off pitted the long-troubled province’s Catholic-backed Republican group Sinn Fein against firebrand Protestant leader Ian Paisley.

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/ 12 October 2006

Plan in place to tackle Gauteng traffic jams

The high-occupancy vehicle lane pilot project in October to reduce massive daily traffic congestion between Pretoria and Johannesburg would be conducted ”cautiously and progressively”, the Gauteng department of transport said on Thursday. Provincial minister Ignatius Jacobs was briefing the media on a planned dedicated lane for vehicles travelling with three or more people.

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/ 12 October 2006

Reserve Bank raises repo rate, warns about inflation

The South African Reserve Bank raised its key repo rate by half a percentage point to 8,5% on Thursday, and warned inflation pressures were building in Africa’s biggest economy. ”The monetary policy committee remains concerned about the outlook for inflation going forward and is of the view that the risks to the inflation outlook are still on the upside,” Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said.

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/ 12 October 2006

Orhan Pamuk wins 2006 Nobel prize for literature

Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s best-known novelist and incendiary social commentator, won the 2006 Nobel prize for Literature on Thursday. In its citation for the 10-million Swedish crown (,36-million) prize, the Swedish Academy said: ”In the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, [Pamuk] has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.”

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/ 12 October 2006

Gibbs fingers three ex-Proteas

South African Herschelle Gibbs revealed on Thursday the names of three former Proteas cricketers involved in a match-fixing scam, said Indian police who now want to question the trio. One of the three was Derek Crookes, who toured India with the South African squad in 2000 and played 32 one-day matches making 1 001 runs. Police declined to identify the other two.

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/ 12 October 2006

Stabbing leads to heightened court security

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has strengthened security measures after a police inspector was stabbed to death while escorting a prisoner to a courtroom earlier this week. Department spokesperson Lazarus Mothupi said on Thursday that four additional guards had been deployed to the Odi Magistrate’s Court in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria.