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/ 5 September 2007

A great Gift squandered

For his first real taste of paid football, Gift Leremi, who was killed in a car accident on September 3, came on as a late substitute in a charity match against Kaizer Chiefs. Orlando Pirates, who had in the off-season promoted him to their first team, were trailing by a goal.

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/ 5 September 2007

Samoa tourism steps out from the shade

Samoa has palm-fringed beaches, lagoons filled with wildly coloured fish and jungle-covered hills, but is only slowly coming out of the shade of better known South Pacific tourist destinations. The number of visitors travelling to the Polynesian nation of 180 000 for holidays jumped 23,6% last year to nearly 41 000.

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/ 5 September 2007

Record-breaking aviator Fossett missing

Steve Fossett, the adventurer who cheated death several times during his perambulations around the globe by air and sea, was missing on Tuesday night after taking off from a ranch in Nevada for a short flight in a single-engine plane. Rescue teams were scouring the rugged terrain of western Nevada on Tuesday for a plane wreck or any other trace of Fossett.

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/ 5 September 2007

SABC under fire after breaking ranks

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been accused of systematic pro-government bias after taking a different stance from most fellow journalists in coverage of the controversial health minister. Allegations against the SABC mounted after its executive chief, Dali Mpofu, sent a resignation letter to the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef).

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/ 5 September 2007

Eskom looks to nuclear plants

South Africa’s largely coal-driven power utility Eskom has hit the limits of its capacity and aims to double output by 2025, with nuclear plants supplying more than a quarter of future energy compared with 6% now. Eskom’s chief executive Jacob Maroga told a coal conference on Tuesday the state-owned firm would cut back on polluting coal-fired plants.

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/ 5 September 2007

New health scheme launched to help world’s poor

Seven developing countries in Africa and Asia will be the first to take part in a new global health campaign aimed at directing aid more effectively at the basic needs of poor countries. Health ministers from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Cambodia and Nepal will take part in the launch of the initiative at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office later on Wednesday.

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/ 5 September 2007

Felix kills four in Central America

Hurricane Felix ripped into Central America on Tuesday, trashing a port on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, killing at least four people and threatening dangerous mudslides in Honduras and Guatemala. The storm, which hit land as a powerful category-five hurricane, ravaged Puerto Cabezas in northern Nicaragua, where howling winds tore the roofs off homes and shelters and damaged a church.

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/ 5 September 2007

Madonna denies using status to speed up adoption

Madonna has not used her celebrity status to speed up the adoption of a little boy from a Southern African country, her spokesperson said on Tuesday. Madonna’s effort to add Malawian toddler David Banda to her family again came under the spotlight on Monday, when the Malawian official scheduled to go to London to assess the adoption was removed from the case.

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/ 5 September 2007

Banking group goes after SACP

The Banking Association of South Africa is trying to have money it accidentally paid to a lobby group led by South African Communist Party head Blade Nzimande returned. The managing director of the Banking Association of South Africa, Cas Coovadia, confirmed that the industry body had accidentally paid its quarterly fees of R360 000 in June last year to the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition.