Staff Reporter
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/ 12 March 2008

Blatter lends ear to NUM

Fifa president Sepp Blatter showed his solidarity with the construction workers who are getting 10 stadiums in South Africa ready for the 2010 World Cup. Blatter met with leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Tuesday and said he wanted them to be treated fairly while building and upgrading World Cup venues.

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/ 12 March 2008

Zuma’s wives in a very tricky spot

Jacob Zuma’s wives are no doubt well advised, and seem to have no end of uncles, columnists and pundits counselling them and Zuma on whether they should marry Zuma and whether or not they are in fact married, given the status of negotiations. But there is one matter that seems to have escaped these women, writes Jennifer Williams

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/ 12 March 2008

Oil bubbles near $109

Oil prices were close to $109 in Asian trade on Wednesday, underpinned by the United States dollar’s dive to a new low against the euro and supply concerns, dealers said. In late morning trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, traded briefly at $108,90 a barrel, up 15 cents from its record closing high of $108,75 on Tuesday.

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/ 12 March 2008

Of tabloids, tokoloshes and tribunals

"By the very fact that they are part of the South African society, journalists are bound by what is in the Constitution. Their responsibility is to take the vision in the Constitution and hold it up and say: Are we living up to that vision?" The <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s ombud, Franz Krüger, interviews press ombudsman Joe Thloloe.

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/ 11 March 2008

Harry Potter: The last battle

She doesn’t court publicity. She doesn’t flaunt her wealth. She has given millions to charity. JK Rowling has been a model of restraint. In little more than a decade since the first Harry Potter book was published, she has barely put a foot wrong in making the transition from single mother to one of the UK’s richest people.

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/ 11 March 2008

Rural votes ‘favoured in Zim election’

Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission has put too few polling stations in the cities, where the opposition has strongest support, an independent election monitoring group said on Tuesday. The group said Harare had 379 polling stations for about 760 000 registered voters — or 22 seconds for each vote if there was maximum turnout.

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/ 11 March 2008

Russia close to earning $1bn a day from energy

Russian energy exports are close to reaching a milestone -billion per day value mark bringing in more money for social spending and creating additional inflationary pressure, a report said on Tuesday. Russian brokerage UralSib said in written research high earnings may also prompt the government to alleviate the tax burden on the oil sector