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/ 4 September 2007

Nigeria open for business

Business in Nigeria is booming — and South African companies are determined to be a part of an economy they say has sky-high potential, despite the challenges posed by unpredictable regulations, unreliable power and a lack of infrastructure. Of these companies, MTN has enjoyed the most obvious success, but other players are upbeat.

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/ 4 September 2007

A Sinn Fein approach to passport control

"When you’re trying to get into the US or travelling about the country by air, one of the battery of security measures in force is called ‘secondary security screening selection’ or SSSS. This is usually a random selection, we are told," writes Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein.

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/ 4 September 2007

Wall-Street-on-Sea

The affluent waterside enclave of Greenwich is 48km east of New York and has been the United States’s hedge-fund capital since the September 11 attacks made Manhattan less appealing. Nicknamed "Wall-Street-on-Sea" or "Upper Hedgistan", the town is home to more than 380 firms managing $100-billion.

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/ 4 September 2007

Chávez pours millions into music scheme

President Hugo Chávez has thrown his weight behind a scheme which brings classical music into Venezuela’s slums, following international acclaim for the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. The Venezuelan leader announced the creation of ”Misión Música”, a government-funded effort to give tuition and instruments to one million impoverished children.

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/ 4 September 2007

Cuba: Raúl signals change of tack

Raúl Castro has started to make cautious changes in Cuba, which could signal plans for political and economic reform. Since he took over from his brother Fidel, dozens of dissidents have been released, an olive branch has been extended to Washington and there is talk of easing communist controls on property and agricultural production.

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/ 4 September 2007

Sol Plaatje gets a facelift

Sol Plaatje 2007: Relocated Mandelaville residents still live in shacks clinging to a hillside facing the Durban Roodepoort Deep mine dump — an aged, yellowing scar on the landscape. There is no electricity here, no direct access to clean water and no municipal services such as rubbish collection. But the view from Sol Plaatje is finally looking up.

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/ 4 September 2007

A destiny they dare not refuse

Nuran Uca never made it to 61 Aydin Arslan Street. If she had gone to the colourful two-storey building, climbed its narrow stairwell, walked down a corridor and sat in the plump brown armchair that so many other women had used, she might be alive today.