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/ 24 January 2008

Tsonga tsunami sweeps Nadal away

Unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stunned second seed Rafael Nadal with an unbelievable display of tennis to storm into the final of the Australian Open on Thursday. In an astonishing performance of clean winners and aces, the 38th-ranked Tsonga claimed his fourth seeded scalp of the tournament, winning 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

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/ 24 January 2008

How rogue bankers lose billions of dollars

The admission by French bank Société Générale on Thursday that a single trader had defrauded it of €4,9-billion ($7,15-billion) is just the latest example of how a rogue operator can blow a huge chunk of a company’s assets sky high. What rogue bankers have in common is that they are experts in making money.

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/ 24 January 2008

World stocks surge

Global share prices rocketed on Thursday, though fears of an economic slowdown lingered as Société Générale revealed a massive €4,9-billion fraud-related loss it attributed to one of its traders. Europe’s leading share indices surged in morning deals, with gains of between 4% and more than 5% after a recovery on the Japanese market.

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/ 24 January 2008

DA presses Public Protector over Oilgate

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has nudged the public protector, Lawrence Mushwana, in an attempt to get a response to their request that he reopen his investigation into the Oilgate scandal. DA spokesperson Motlatjo Thetjeng said it was now nine months since the DA first wrote to Mushwana about the matter.

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/ 24 January 2008

French bank hit by €4,9-billion fraud

French bank Société Générale (SocGen) disclosed one of the biggest alleged frauds in financial history on Thursday, adding to a wave of gloom surrounding world markets battered by credit market losses. SocGen, France’s second-biggest listed bank, said it had uncovered an ”exceptional fraud” by one of its traders. It said this would cost the group â,¬4,9-billion.

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/ 24 January 2008

Hair, nails and politics

At first sight, Salon Fabulous doesn’t quite live up to its name. A trailer in a car park in a neighbourhood of dilapidated houses and rusting cars on the outskirts of Columbia, the state capital of South Carolina, it doesn’t hold out much promise of transformation.