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/ 14 September 2007

DTI concerned over Sasol’s BEE deal

South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Friday that it was concerned that the proposed Employee Share Ownership Scheme (ESOP) proposed under Sasol’s R17,9-billion black economic empowerment (BEE) deal "falls short of the level of empowerment envisioned in the Codes [of Good Practice]".

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/ 14 September 2007

Jet envy: Google founders pay for big parking perk

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin park their jet just a stone’s throw from their offices, paying $1,3-million a year for rights at a federally maintained airfield, the <i>New York Times</i> reported Thursday. Why put up with bothersome local traffic when you can shell out a princely sum for take-off and landing rights just a few minutes from your office?

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/ 14 September 2007

‘Caution: Water on road during rain’

Campaigners for the English language on Thursday attacked a growing tendency for "obvious" public information posters, such as a police sign urging people: "Don’t Commit Crime." Other examples highlighted by the Plain English Campaign include "Warning: Platform ends here" on the end of rail station platforms, and "May cause drowsiness" on sleeping pills.

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/ 14 September 2007

The fancy of the fans

Orlando Pirates coach Bibey Mutombo says he is not the first Pirates coach to be put under pressure from the fans. Duh! Given that this is the club’s 70th anniversary and that it boasts millions of passionate and opinionated fans, it stands to reason there must have been one or two other coaches before Mutombo, whose governance of the team did not meet the supporters’ expectations.

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/ 14 September 2007

‘You’ve gotta think, think BIG’

Who is George Bush? A gaffe-ridden buffoon? The man who confronts the evildoers? Or is he Bush as Bush sees himself, the decider, a leader who makes the hard choices and sticks to them? In just 16 months’ time, the job of working out who Bush really is will move out of the world’s newsrooms and into the book-lined studies of historians.

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/ 14 September 2007

Japan’s outgoing PM admitted to hospital

Japan’s political crisis deepened when the Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was admitted to hospital suffering from exhaustion less than 24 hours after suddenly announcing his resignation. Abe (52) was seen by a doctor on Thursday morning after feeling unwell and was admitted to Keio hospital in Tokyo later in the day.

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/ 14 September 2007

Central bank sees CPIX back to target

South African inflation is expected to return to its target range in the second half of 2008, the country’s central bank said on Friday. The South African Reserve Bank’s forecast was more hawkish than previous predictions. After its August monetary policy meeting, it expected inflation to come back to the target band in the second quarter of 2008.