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/ 15 September 2006

Zim inflation rockets to record high

The annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe reached a new record high of 1 204,6% in August, the central statistics office announced on Friday. The announcement of the new rise came after slight falls in the rate for June and July, which had raised hopes by central bank chief Gideon Gono that a corner had been turned in the fight against the ”inflation dragon”.

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/ 15 September 2006

Pope’s comments anger Muslims

Pope Benedict XVI faced growing Muslim anger on Friday over remarks in which he linked Islam with violence, with the Pakistani Parliament calling on him to retract the statement. In a university lecture in Regensburg, Germany, on Tuesday, the Pope implicitly denounced connections between Islam and violence, particularly with regard to jihad, or ”holy war”.

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/ 15 September 2006

FW’s spokesperson beaten, robbed

Former president FW de Klerk’s spokesperson Dave Steward believes he and his wife were ”very lucky” to have emerged relatively unscathed from an armed robbery at their Claremont, Cape Town, home. Steward said on Friday that he and his wife Lanice were attacked as they prepared to reverse out of their garage to visit her elderly parents at 6.15pm on Sunday.

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/ 15 September 2006

World Bank takes hard line on corruption

The chief of the World Bank took a hard line on corruption on Friday while his counterpart at the International Monetary Fund said policy-makers need to be ready to adapt to a more difficult economic environment in the coming year as delegates gathered for the sister institutions’ annual meetings.

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/ 15 September 2006

Schumacher: Villain and virtuoso

In the end he overstayed his welcome by a year, maybe two. Had Michael Schumacher chosen to retire at the end of 2004, with a seventh world title round his neck, he would not have left the world with the memory of that creepy expression of bogus innocence as he attempted to explain away his inexcusable behaviour during the final qualifying session at Monaco in May of this year.

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/ 15 September 2006

Ireland sells its soul for the Ryder Cup

Not long ago some friends and I went to Ireland to play the remarkable, but often overlooked, golf courses in and around Dublin. We marvelled at the heaving farmland and theatrical par-threes of Druid’s Heath, the subtle, inscrutable greens of Baltray and the wondrous European Club, a 1992 home-made masterpiece by journalist-architect Pat Ruddy.

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/ 15 September 2006

Zimbabwe: ‘The police are brutal here’

Three members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) who were arrested and allegedly assaulted by police on Wednesday had still not received treatment by Friday morning. ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo, first vice-president Lucia Matibenga and secretary general Wellington Chibebe, were allegedly assaulted by Zimbabwean police officers at the Matapi police station in Mbare after they held a protest against poverty.