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/ 15 January 2008

Lekota nabbed for speeding

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has reportedly been arrested for speeding. The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported that Lekota was charged, at the Mondeor police station just before midnight on Sunday, with reckless and negligent driving.

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/ 15 January 2008

Lehman Brothers: Zuma’s plans sound expensive

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>Global analysts Lehman Brothers said in a research note on Tuesday that African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s high-growth policy plans sounded "rather expensive", with funding probably coming from the budget surplus.

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/ 15 January 2008

Beware the ‘man for all seasons’

History is replete with examples of individuals who claim to carry the mantle of revolutionary greatness, but end up dismally disappointing the marginalised and downtrodden who place so much faith in them. Does Jacob Zuma represent a similar threat to our constitutional democracy, asks Steven Robins, professor in the department of sociology & social anthropology at Stellenbosch University.

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/ 15 January 2008

In Iran, some women pursue rights despite pressure

Nahid Keshavarz says two weeks in an Iranian jail didn’t deter her from helping try to collect one million signatures for a petition urging more women’s rights and, if anything, prison showed the cause was worth fighting for. Keshavarz is one of dozens of women who campaigners say have been detained since 2006 when the drive was launched. Most were released within a few days or weeks.

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/ 14 January 2008

Shaik, showers, shysters … and spandex

Pity those who think there’s no fun to be had as South Africa enters what could be the Year of the Banana. With the former second-in-charge of the country in the pay of a convicted shyster, the chief of police hanging with criminals instead of arresting them and a long list of other foibles by those tasked with our rule, there could be little to laugh about.

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/ 14 January 2008

German experts crack Mona Lisa mystery

German academics believe they have solved the centuries-old mystery behind the identity of the Mona Lisa in Leonardo da Vinci’s famous portrait. Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, has long been seen as the most likely model for the sixteenth-century painting.