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/ 29 October 2007
The world’s largest bank last week announced it would take a 20% stake in Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank, in the biggest foreign direct investment by a Chinese company anywhere in the world. This means South Africa is now the top destination for Chinese foreign investment, ahead of Zambia and the Sudan.
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/ 29 October 2007
Multinational Holcim, based in Switzerland, brought about one of the bigger black economic empowerment (BEE) deals last year by selling its stake in Holcim South Africa down to 8% from 54% for about R7,4-billion. Somehow the factual question of whether BEE had spurred the disinvestment became a political issue.
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/ 29 October 2007
South Africans are earning more. Much more. Total income has more than doubled in the past seven years. This phenomenal growth is eclipsed only by the growth of the black middle class, which has grown at an even faster rate. The latest Amps figures reflect rocketing growth in spending power, writes Jocelyn Newmarch.
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/ 29 October 2007
About 25 000 of India’s poorest people — tribal peoples, "untouchables" and landless labourers — have stopped traffic for nearly three weeks on the road that links Delhi and Agra, home to the Taj Mahal. Headed by a group of chanting Buddhist monks, the marchers say they aim to shame government into keeping its promise to redistribute land.
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/ 29 October 2007
Our political culture remains decidedly short of real satire; surely it is a test of the robustness of a democracy: if it can’t take the humorous hits, our political leadership is hardly likely to be willing to answer the difficult questions. Jacob Zuma has sued Zapiro, the cartoonist: What does this tell us about his attitude to public accountability?
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/ 29 October 2007
Last week, another armed group in the increasingly volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ignored a government deadline to disarm, increasing to three the number of illegal groups the Congolese army is chasing in that region.
At the same time, a Human Rights Watch report detailed the atrocities that threaten civilians living in this region.
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/ 29 October 2007
It takes a special kind of genius to unite the warring parties of the Israel-Palestine conflict, but George Bush may just have pulled it off. His proposal for what the United States administration calls a ”meeting”, rather than a peace conference, in Annapolis, Maryland, before the end of the year has elicited a unanimity unheard of in the Middle East.
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/ 29 October 2007
In the Tanzania Declaration on Food Security, heads of state committed themselves to allocating 10% of government budgets to food security. Yet only Malawi is honouring this commitment. Why will most countries in sub-Saharan Africa fail to reach the first Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty and hunger by 2015?
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/ 29 October 2007
Britain’s relations with Russia faced another downturn last week following fresh reports that the missing billionaire oligarch Mikhail Gutseriyev had fled to the United Kingdom. Gutseriyev — the former head of Russneft, a Russian private oil firm — disappeared in August shortly before a Moscow court issued a warrant for his arrest.
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/ 29 October 2007
How do you save the Amazon rainforest? Easy. All you need is a bit of cash and a computer. Then go to the site of Cool Earth and, with a click of the mouse, you can ”Add to cart” half-an-acre (0,2ha) of endangered rainforest for £35. Cool Earth claims this will keep locked up 130 tonnes of carbon dioxide and protect 400 unique species.