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/ 29 February 2008

Beijing opens new $3,6-billion air terminal

Beijing opened a huge new ,6-billion airport terminal on Friday ahead of the expected influx of millions of visitors to this summer’s Olympics, part of a multibillion infrastructure boost for the capital. The impressive terminal’s nearly 3km long concourse will boost capacity at the airport to 76-million.

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/ 29 February 2008

Sudan told to speed deployment of peacekeepers

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Friday for Sudan to speed up the deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur and to end aerial bombing in the troubled region’s western districts. Miliband said the international community is united in the need for a hybrid United Nations-African Union force, but the effort is stalled by a lack of necessary support from Khartoum.

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/ 29 February 2008

Army prepares to evacuate Harry after blackout fails

Army commanders were making frantic arrangements on Thursday night to bring Prince Harry back from Afghanistan after an American website disclosed that he had been serving with other British troops fighting the Taliban. The prince, who is 10 weeks into a 14-week tour, was believed to still be in the country on Thursday night among British soldiers in the southern Helmand province.

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/ 29 February 2008

Iraq council approves ‘Chemical Ali’ hanging

Iraq’s presidency council has cleared the way for the long-delayed execution of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as ”Chemical Ali”, to be carried out, Iraqi officials said on Friday. The execution of Majeed has been delayed for months by a legal wrangle over who has the authority to green light the hangings.

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/ 29 February 2008

PSL tills ring with moolah

The worst Premier Soccer League side will, at the end of this season, have made at least R12,7-million in revenue. And if one club were to be dominant and win all the trophies on offer, it would bank at least R32-million — and that is excluding revenue from sponsors and gate takings.

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/ 29 February 2008

But do they think?

Incredulity: how else was one to react to the news that an American think tank had recently dished out a series of awards to other think tanks — including the locally based Institute for Security Studies (ISS). On a little reflection it is easy to see how this is possible. As political philosopher Hannah Arendt once remarked: "The trouble with think-tankers is that they don’t think!"

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/ 29 February 2008

Means test axing is good for savings

The abolition of the means test for the payment of old-age pensions, mooted in last week’s budget, might be an incentive to save, says Elias Masilela, chief strategist of Sanlam Employee Benefits. The means test is a complicated calculation that penalises those who have saved for retirement by reducing the grant amount if the individual is already receiving a retirement income.

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/ 29 February 2008

Investors in for long haul

"Regrettably he was buried in Durban," Masterbond campaigner Don Mackenzie reportedly said of one of the collapsed company’s curators. "Otherwise I’d go and piss on his grave." The Masterbond curatorship dragged on for more than a decade amid bitter claims that investors were milked. Its ghost hangs over the biggest South African corporate scandal