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/ 19 September 2006

Succession struggle widens split in ANC

A bitter struggle over who will succeed Thabo Mbeki as president has forced the governing African National Congress to confront dissent openly and defend its policies from attacks by its own rank and file. Former deputy president Jacob Zuma has escalated the succession battle by campaigning openly and vigorously to become the next president.

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/ 19 September 2006

Cosatu sees wage gap widening

Non-executive directors’ annual pay packages increased on average just over 34% in 2005 to R342&nbsp;072 from R254&nbsp;744 in 2004, a study published in the <i>Bargaining Monitor</i> distributed at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) congress has established.

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/ 19 September 2006

Commodities, rand boost JSE

The JSE was in positive territory in noon trade on Tuesday, lifted by higher commodity prices. A weaker rand also lent support. By 12.07pm, the all share and all share industrial indices added 0,4% and 0,31% respectively. Resources rose 0,64% and the gold mining index jumped 1,93%, but the platinum mining index surrendered 1,23%.

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/ 19 September 2006

Drugs-tainted Jones should retire, says Johnson

Marion Jones, who was recently cleared of using banned blood-booster EPO, will never be able to repair her image and should retire from athletics, track legend Michael Johnson said on Tuesday. In a column for the London-based Daily Telegraph, Johnson said Jones would be forever blighted by ”a plethora of circumstantial evidence” surrounding alleged doping.

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/ 19 September 2006

Gregan focused on World Cup

Wallaby captain George Gregan announced on Tuesday that he would opt out of Australia’s four-Test tour of Europe in November to concentrate on preparing for next year’s World Cup. Gregan, the world’s most-capped international player with 127 Tests, said his decision to miss the tour was based purely on the opportunity to get ready physically for the World Cup.

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/ 19 September 2006

Afghanistan hit by wave of suicide bombings

A chain of suicide bombings killed 19 people, including four Canadian soldiers, across Afghanistan on Monday, in guerrilla violence bearing an increasing resemblance to the conflict in Iraq. The blasts came a day after Nato claimed it had scored a victory after killing more than 500 insurgents in two weeks of fighting.

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/ 19 September 2006

Opposition presses Hungary PM to quit

Hungary’s opposition parties called on Tuesday on Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany to quit after thousands of people took to the streets in a night of anti-government riots in which 150 people were injured. The riots, the worst in Hungary since the end of communism, were triggered by the leak of a tape on Sunday in which Gyurcsany said he and his Socialist party had lied for four years about Hungary’s parlous budget.

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/ 19 September 2006

Possible petrol-price cut on the cards

The Department of Minerals and Energy could implement a retail petrol-price cut of 66c per litre (c/l) on October 4 provided the daily over-recovery remains at or above the September 18 level. South Africa’s daily unleaded petrol price over-recovery rose to 68,914 c/l on September 18 from 64,652 c/l on September 15.

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/ 19 September 2006

Iraq in danger of civil war, warns Annan

The United Nations Secretary General warned on Monday that Iraq was in danger of sliding into anarchy and civil war. Addressing an international aid conference at the UN, Kofi Annan said: ”If current patterns of alienation and violence persist much longer, there is a grave danger that the Iraqi state will break down, possibly in the midst of full-scale civil war.”