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/ 25 February 2008
As Southern Africa braces for cyclones and more heavy rains, economic analysts warn that the floods already engulfing the region are likely to impact badly on inflation and other fundamental economic indicators. "Naturally, the floods will have an effect," says Oliver Saasa, a consultant economics professor at the University of Zambia.
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/ 25 February 2008
The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) is reviewing alternative energy sources to keep the city’s traffic lights operating and intersections flowing during blackouts. The use of solar-powered lights and lights running on ordinary UPS batteries are being considered. Johannesburg already has 15 intersections that use battery power on a pilot basis, while one site uses solar power.
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/ 25 February 2008
About 20 000 stolen — but recovered — cars worth an estimated R2-billion are needlessly crushed in South Africa every year. Many are in poor condition, but some are top of their range and in excellent nick. The cars destroyed are those recovered by authorities, but not reclaimed by their owners, usually because they have been paid out the full insurance value.
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/ 25 February 2008
While "oligarchs" from the era of former president Boris Yeltsin were purged by the Kremlin, a new breed of super-rich tycoons has thrived under Vladimir Putin, bringing the number of dollar billionaires in the country to more than 100. Russia now has the most billionaires in the world after the United States, which has 415. Germany is third with 60.
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/ 25 February 2008
Shortly after Australian Mark Cutifani arrived at AngloGold Ashanti, he was forced to wear a Springbok rugby jersey for two days as his colleagues celebrated the Boks’ World Cup victory. Cutifani describes the event as “an absolute tragedy”, but despite this trauma, he appears relaxed and smiling when we meet at the mining house’s head offices in the refurbished Turbine Hall in downtown Johannesburg.
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/ 25 February 2008
Fears that China might export inflation to the rest of the world were heightened this week when Beijing announced the sharpest rise in the cost of living in 11 years. With food prices rising rapidly following severe new year storms, the annual inflation rate in the fast-growing developing economy reached 7,1% last month.
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/ 25 February 2008
South African consumers who want to help prevent the next round of load-shedding by buying an energy-efficient TV will find themselves in the dark.
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/ 25 February 2008
Cuba’s national assembly named Raúl Castro as head of state on Sunday night, formally ending 49 years of Fidel Castro’s dominance. The 614-member body accepted the 76-year-old defence minister and constitutionally designated successor as the candidate to take over from his elder brother.
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/ 25 February 2008
The dust had hardly settled after the ANC’s great Polokwane indaba when some people began toying with the idea that the ANC would put its deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, up as its presidential candidate for the 2009 general election. Lies are being peddled that ANC president Jacob Zuma has been banging tables reprimanding those he perceives to be back-stabbing him, writes Malusi Gigaba.
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/ 25 February 2008
And so the preachers have hit the streets, and the school marm is ringing the bell and clicking her heels. It’s time to get in line.The clarion call sounds across the length and breadth of the land: the youth must be saved. Saved from drink, saved from disease, saved from one another – Hell, saved from themselves.