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/ 28 February 2008

A photo-editing tool chest — for free

Buying a digital camera, photo printer and camera accessories can leave a hole in your wallet. So why should you have to splurge yet more on software? While the big-name commercial software packages promise to make your life with digital images easier, there are plenty of programs available for free that do almost as much — and sometimes more.

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/ 28 February 2008

Evicted SA squatters live on hope alone

Legsaan Levember can only pray for better days as he huddles with 12 family members in a roadside tent, another victim of South Africa’s spiralling housing backlog. The family uses a plastic sheet to extend their tiny tent, which perches precariously on the slope of a small dune and is regularly blown away by Cape Town’s relentless south-easterly winds.

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/ 28 February 2008

Boucher ‘an icon of the game’

Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola on Thursday congratulated Mark Boucher on reclaiming his world record as the most successful Test wicketkeeper of all time. Boucher contributed five dismissals to the Proteas’ victory in the first Test against Bangladesh, which finished in Dhaka on Monday, and has thus set a new mark of 418 dismissals.

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/ 28 February 2008

Inflation surge boosts rate-hike chances

South Africa’s consumer inflation, which jumped unexpectedly in January, raised the risk of further monetary tightening despite worries over slowing economic growth. Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday that targeted CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) stood at 8,8% year-on-year in January compared with 8,6% in December.

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/ 28 February 2008

McCain, Obama tangle over Iraq pull-out

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama faced off on Wednesday in a possible prelude to a United States presidential election battle, tangling over whether Iraq would be prey for al-Qaeda if US troops are withdrawn. McCain, who has linked his candidacy to a successful outcome in Iraq, attacked Obama’s stance on the war.

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/ 28 February 2008

UN highlights ‘evils of child abuse’ in Zim

Child rape has increased by 42% in Zimbabwe, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday, linking worsening child abuse and domestic violence to family tensions caused by the nation’s economic meltdown. Unicef launched a new ”Stand Up and Speak Out” campaign to fight what it called the ”staggering statistics on the unspeakable evils of child abuse”.

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/ 28 February 2008

Power purge

Last week the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that the South African Communist Party planned to axe two senior Cape Town members for daring to criticise undemocratic practices at the party’s congress last year and suggesting that it is obsessed with "individuals" (read Zuma) to the detriment of its professed role as the party of the working class.

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/ 28 February 2008

McCain, the old warrior

Senator John McCain — who has just about secured his party’s presidential nomination after fellow hopeful and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the race — doesn’t believe his age should be a campaign issue. "I am 71 and I said I would out-campaign my opponents. I have out-campaigned them," he told me in a recent interview.