Staff Reporter
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/ 15 March 2005

Medicine pricing case comes to Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court is due to hear an application by the Department of Health on Tuesday about its controversial medicine pricing regulations. Part of the regulations, which were introduced last May to make medicines more affordable, include formulas to set the manufacturer’s price and cap the profit that pharmacists may make from selling medicines.

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/ 15 March 2005

Swimming stars shine in Durban

South African stars Natalie du Toit, Handri de Beer and Charles Bouwer showed just why they were part of the national team to the Paralympics in Athens last year, as the SA records kept crashing at the Nedbank Championships for the Physically Disabled in Durban on Monday.

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/ 15 March 2005

UN probes SA commander in the DRC

A South African battalion commander will probably be sent home after alleged involvement in sexual misconduct in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), News24 reported on Tuesday. The South African Defence Force said the United Nations was investigating charges against ”a member of the South African contingent in the DRC”.

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/ 15 March 2005

DTI: ‘All together now’

Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa on Monday announced the department’s plan to encourage the formation of co-operatives as part of government’s job creation strategy. ”Internationally we have seen how co-operatives are an important part of many economies and the contribution they make to society,” said Mpahlwa.

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/ 15 March 2005

Spoornet ‘to do more with less’

Operations at Spoornet are ”settling down” and the rail utility is on track with its planned improvements, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday. Speaking at Spoornet’s offices in Johannesburg, he told journalists that Spoornet was moving forward after years of under-investment.

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/ 15 March 2005

United in our divisions

Most South Africans are proud to be South African, but race relations remain fraught, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has found. The findings, in the council’s <i>South African Social Attitudes Survey</i>, raise the question of whether an overarching national identity really matters for the formation of a united, non-racist society, said the HSRC’s Marlene Roefs.

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/ 15 March 2005

Japan and South Korea in island row

Relations between Japan and South Korea neared breaking point on Monday over renewed claims by Tokyo to sovereignty over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the Sea of Japan. Faced with continued violent protests in Seoul — during which two women cut off their fingers — Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea, Toshiyuki Takano.

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/ 15 March 2005

UK urged to turn to wind power

Germany’s Green party environment minister said on Monday that Britain should emulate Germany’s example and build thousands more wind turbines if it wanted to prevent climate change. Britain has agreed to increase dramatically its own wind farm programme, as a means of achieving 10% of energy needs from renewable sources by 2010.