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/ 11 December 2007
As if the idea of having one robot to serve a person wasn’t unusual enough, Honda says its robots are now ready to work in pairs — and they can even serve drinks. At a demonstration held on Tuesday in Tokyo, the automaker showed off two of the child-sized Asimo robots serving tea and performing other tasks.
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/ 11 December 2007
South Africa’s gold production costs are among the highest in the world, the South African Reserve Bank said in its December <i>Quarterly Bulletin</i> released on Tuesday. Continued increases in input costs had an adverse affect on gold mining in the third quarter of 2007.
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/ 11 December 2007
Salaries for workers in the South African formal non-agricultural sectors accelerated to 7,5% year-on-year (y/y) in the second quarter of 2007 from 4,9% in the first quarter of the year, the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) <i>Quarterly Bulletin</i> showed on Tuesday.
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/ 11 December 2007
A computer program that poses as a flirtatious internet surfer is being used to steal people’s identities from online chatrooms, experts claim. According to analysts at online security company PC Tools, the robot — known as CyberLover — is being used by criminals to gather information on internet chatters.
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/ 11 December 2007
Zwelinzima Vavi was ”a bit reckless” in the comments he made about women’s equity, said African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe on Tuesday. ”History will judge him. I would expect a leader of his stature to be more circumspect,” Motlanthe said on Talk Radio 702.
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/ 11 December 2007
Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest resources group, has played its trump card in its battle to maintain its independence in the wake of BHP Billiton’s hard-sold merger proposal by calling on the United Kindom’s Takeover Panel to set a deadline for a formal offer.
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/ 11 December 2007
The JSE pulled back from earlier gains by midday on Tuesday, as heavyweights Anglo American and BHP Billiton started to weaken. By noon, the JSE all-share index was only 0,15% in the black, after being up over 0,7% earlier in the session. The gold mining index rallied 3,42%, while the platinum mining index inched up 0,04%, but resources lost 0,17%.
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/ 11 December 2007
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took office as Argentina’s first elected female president on Monday in a rare husband-to-wife handover Argentines hope will sustain an historic economic boom. Fernandez, a former first lady and senator, began a four-year term promising to continue the policies of her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner.
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/ 11 December 2007
Prison officials denied whistle-blowing Pollsmoor doctor, Paul Theron, entry to the prison hospital when he reported for duty on Tuesday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. The Department of Health had suspended him after Theron had complained about poor conditions at the prison hospital.
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/ 11 December 2007
It’s crunch time in the Champions League on Wednesday as four teams attempt to secure the two remaining tickets into the knockout stage of Europe’s top club competition. With Barcelona already qualified and German champions Stuttgart out of contention, Rangers and Lyon are left to scrape it out at Ibrox for second place.