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/ 15 September 2006

Zim gears up for mass action

As the economic situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates, security forces are being trained by Chinese military advisers in how to counter popular revolt. Both the police and the army have been undergoing training in how to ”deal with urban disturbances” after an intelligence report was issued on the potential for massive civil unrest.

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/ 15 September 2006

Free-ranging radio

In the foothills of the Bvumba mountains near the Mozambican border in eastern Zimbabwe, a group of villagers are gathered around a portable radio waiting for the daily broadcast of their favourite station. From a London suburb a resistance of exiled radio stars are beaming out the only opposition voice to Mugabe’s regime, writes Douglas Rogers.

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/ 15 September 2006

Zambian children’s crushed hopes

Maria Banda, just five years old, and her grandmother, Aineli, spend every day breaking stones into gravel in quarries a few kilometres from the heart of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. Hundreds of others are doing the same. Maria produces two to three tins each day, her grandmother as many as nine, which they sell for sh,50 a tin.

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/ 14 September 2006

Tendulkar shines but Windies too strong for India

Sachin Tendulkar smashed a masterly 141 on his comeback from injury on Thursday but it was to no avail as the West Indies beat India in a rain-affected DLF Cup one-day international here.The West Indies won by 29 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis method after scoring 141-2 in 20 overs as they chased India’s 309-5 when the weather settled matters.

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/ 14 September 2006

Bottlenose blondes

How many elderly goldfish can moonwalk on water to Kylie? I’m wrestling with this question as Puck, a 41-year-old bottle­nose dolphin, slides backwards across her 6m-deep pool, body upright, tail smoothly making waves to the rhythm of Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.

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/ 14 September 2006

Mbeki’s costly Cosatu snub

ANC president Thabo Mbeki is conspicuously absent from the list of leaders scheduled to address the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) congress next week, cementing the widespread suspicion that the federation is now firmly behind ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who is the keynote speaker at the congress.

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/ 14 September 2006

Satawu: Transport workers a power in global economy

Transport workers have great power in a global economy that relies on efficient supply chains, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union’s (Satawu) national conference heard on Thursday. While globalisation had destroyed jobs, the world’s ”highly sensitive” supply chains were at the worker’s mercy, said Stuart Howard, assistant general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation.

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/ 14 September 2006

Gauteng police to be beefed up

Gauteng police will be reinforced by 3 011 additional members, the provincial minister for community safety said on Thursday. ”This will increase Gauteng’s capacity [to fight crime in the province] by 15% in terms of additional detectives and 8% in terms of visible policing,” said Firoz Cachalia. Cachalia was briefing media in Johannesburg on the province’s safety plan.