Staff Reporter
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/ 20 October 2006

SA economy on track for a good year

South Africa’s economy remains on track for a good year, but while rising incomes will continue to provide support for consumer spending, higher interest rates and growing structural imbalances will muzzle the country’s overall expansion, according to Moody’s <i>Economy.com</i> economist Dr Ruth Stroppiana.

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/ 20 October 2006

Road rage on Car-Free Day

Fists flew in Honeydew in Johannesburg on Friday morning -– Car-Free Day — as a motorist and a taxi driver fought each other in a bout of road rage. Minibus taxi drivers had to be chased from the scene as ”chaos” broke out when they rushed to their colleague’s aid, said chief superintendent Wayne Minnaar from the Johannesburg metro police.

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/ 20 October 2006

We’ve lost battle for Baghdad, US admits

A day after United States President George Bush conceded for the first time that the US may have reached the equivalent of a Tet offensive in Iraq, the Pentagon on Thursday admitted defeat in its strategy of securing Baghdad. On Thursday the number of US troops killed since October 1 rose to 73, deepening the sense that the country is trapped in an unwinnable situation.

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/ 20 October 2006

Paris Club cancels most of Malawi’s debt

The Paris Club of creditor nations agreed on Thursday to cancel almost all of Malawi’s debt, reducing the small Southern African nation’s remaining debt to just -million (R67-million). National representatives to the informal group, which meets monthly in Paris, agreed to recommend to their governments that about -million in debt owed by the impoverished country be cancelled.

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/ 20 October 2006

Beware of grandmasters bearing yoghurt

”Like madmen they were,” my friend’s mother said. It was the late 1970s and she was explaining why she had banned chess grandmasters from her house. They were an émigré family from the Eastern bloc, the father was a talented chess player and for years the house had been a port of call for visiting checkmate greats. But not any more.

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/ 20 October 2006

Arms deal man raided by UK cops

The London home and the offices of an arms broker linked to a supplier in South Africa’s multibillion-rand arms deal have been raided by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, it was reported on Thursday. The Guardian said the raids were part of a probe into corruption allegations against Britain’s biggest military hardware exporter, BAE Systems.

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/ 20 October 2006

Slim prisoner back behind bars

An Australian prisoner shed 14kg so he could slip between the bars of his cell and escape, a court in Sydney was told on Friday. Robert Cole (37) spent three days at large after escaping in January despite breaking his leg when he jumped from a high perimeter wall.

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/ 20 October 2006

Schwarzenegger looks set for second term

The moment came towards the end of the uncompromisingly boring debate between Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor, and the Democrat challenger, Phil Angelides. Schwarzenegger, in the only televised debate of this election, had just listened to a lengthy answer from the challenger about some obscure point of policy.