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/ 6 September 2007

Mboweni: Tentative signs of spending easing

South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday that while there were some tentative indications of a slowdown in consumption, such as vehicle sales, it was still "early days". Mboweni said that while the current account deficit was being adequately financed by financial inflows, there might be inflationary pressures in the future if the deficit widened.

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/ 6 September 2007

Sudan has drones, is pursuing missiles

Sudan has developed unmanned surveillance planes, is developing missiles, and is now ”self-sufficient” in conventional weapons, a Sudanese state news agency reported. The rare public announcement on Sudan’s military capability gave no details on how far missile development had progressed or where the surveillance drones might be used.

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/ 6 September 2007

China denies cyber-spying charges

From the German chancellery to the Pentagon, government computer networks have been targeted by cyber spies that media reports say were directed by China’s military. The reported Pentagon attack was the ”most flagrant and brazen to date”, said Alex Neill, an expert on the Chinese military at London’s Royal United Services Institute.

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/ 6 September 2007

Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71

Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, died in the early hours of Thursday, his manager Terri Robson said. ”Luciano Pavarotti died one hour ago,” Robson said in an SMS to Reuters. He was 71. He shot to fame with a stand-in appearance at London’s Covent Garden in 1963 and had soon had critics gushing about his voluminous voice.

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/ 6 September 2007

Brangelina’s car

General Motors (GM) is making a point of acknowledging girl power with the launch of the Chevrolet Captiva. Using the blockbuster movie <i>Mr & Mrs Smith</i> as a premise, GM went to great lengths to accentuate the versatility and over all appeal of its latest SUV.

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/ 6 September 2007

Honouring Steve Biko

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the death of black consciousness leader Steve Bantu Biko. How do we honour him? There is hardly a debate that is not shot through with race. In urban centres these include the fractured debates about employment equity and empowerment. In rural areas, racial relations reflect the neo-feudal arrangements of the Seventies.

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/ 6 September 2007

Black diamonds and emaciated white girls

”Regardless of the BEE types’ penchant for emaciated white girls whose figures might be attributed to the sort of galloping bulimia offensive to any self-respecting peasant living below the bread line, it is time to ensure transformation occurs at all levels of society. Including the air-heads,” writes Niren Tolsi.

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/ 6 September 2007

South Africa’s magazine minefield

The Media magazine last year described the explosion of consumer titles in the print market as a magazine minefield. Spurring the growth has been the country’s recent economic boom, which has seen South African consumers spoilt for choice with the number of magazines quadrupling in the past decade. Only time will tell which titles will survive the boom.