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/ 5 March 2007

Sudan contamination ‘highly unlikely’

A major spice manufacturer on Sunday said it was taking allegations of product contamination seriously but that the presence of an illegal banned chemical was ”highly unlikely”. ”We are very surprised at the results of this test. Unilever has not had a single incident of Sudan contamination from March 2005 to date,” said spokesperson Christine Broadhurst.

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/ 5 March 2007

Sentech out in the cold

It appears the department of communications’ grand plan for Sentech to become a key player in the broadband market is not going to come to fruition any time soon. Once again, Sentech has been overlooked in the budget, and it will not be receiving the capital investment it requires from government to institute its wireless broadband rollout.

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/ 5 March 2007

Lies of the vigilantes

Slobodan Milosevic was posthumously exonerated on Monday when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Serbia was not responsible for the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica. The former president of Serbia had always argued that neither Yugoslavia nor Serbia had command of the Bosnian Serb army, a claim that has now been upheld by the ICJ.

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/ 5 March 2007

Blood ties

In public, at least, they seem remarkably unfazed by what they have done. And in some senses, of course, they needn’t be. They are a loving couple, who have been together for seven years and want to be with no one else. They have had four children. Beyond these details, however, the story gets more troubling. Patrick and Susan Stubing, who live in Zwenkau, near Leipzig, Germany, are brother and sister.

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/ 5 March 2007

Dial-a-super-profit

Some South Africans are paying just six cents a call in interconnect fees to cellphone operators, while others are paying a whopping R1,25 a call. The six-cents-a-call applies in under-serviced areas, but major network operator Cell C says it can operate and make profits at six cents a call.

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/ 5 March 2007

Zimbabwe’s workers struggle to survive

The average worker in Zimbabwe earns Z$100 000 per month, but following last week’s pay hike for teachers and the bulk of the civil servants, prices of basic commodities rose significantly, effectively putting a strain on the newly introduced salaries while those in other sectors were virtually plunged into a hopeless abyss of poverty and deprivation.

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/ 5 March 2007

‘I’ve always been an activist’

"Charity is a very Victorian notion — the further away people are, the more charitable we feel towards them," says Thompson with not a little asperity. "By my thirties I was thoroughly disenchanted by celebrity charity stuff — I just can’t bear it!" she says with a groan. Loathing the lunches-‘n-launches celebrity circuit, Thompson was looking for a way to make a more meaningful contribution.

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/ 5 March 2007

Former leader guns for presidency

Former Malawian president Bakili Muluzi dominated local media headlines over the past three weeks after returning from the United Kingdom, where he went for a medical check-up. But this time it is not his health but his desire to run again as president in 2009 elections that has attracted the media’s attention.