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/ 14 August 2006

Guns fall silent in Lebanon

A United Nations-brokered ceasefire to end the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas went into effect at 7am South African time on Monday, and Lebanese security sources said the guns had fallen silent across southern Lebanon.

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/ 14 August 2006

Congo hopefuls consider coalitions

As officials sweat over auditing the results of the presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the politicians stay on familiar, albeit treacherous ground. They share the curious quality of public representatives who, until July 30, had never faced an electorate. But this does not make them any less adroit than more conventional politicians at the bluff and double bluff of building coalitions.

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/ 14 August 2006

What goes around, comes around

South Africa is not too shabby in the recycling stakes, ranking as one of the top recycling countries in the world. The paper recovery rate is 45% of total paper produced. "For a developing country, that is pretty good. South Africa is also a large [country]," says John Hunt of the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa.

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/ 14 August 2006

We all come from the same root

For a monk the late Father Trevor Huddleston certainly seems to have sown a lot of wild oats in his early days. He might not have left his physical resemblance lying around the African continent, like many missionary forbears, but he sure left a lot of mothers certain that they did not want their first-born sons named after anyone but him. That, and the good works he left behind, are part of his huge legacy.

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/ 14 August 2006

The wheels are oiled

Sasol’s black economic empowerment deal, announced in June, marks the end of a phase in the Liquid Fuels Charter. All the major oil firms are "empowered" in the sense of having structured financial transactions that should see black people owning 25% of the liquid fuels industry by 2010.

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/ 14 August 2006

SA’s junkyard sale

South Africa is exporting scrap metal at a rapid rate, causing local shortages and job losses. The Department of Trade and Industry implemented regulations that stopped export permits being issued to exporters of scrap metal in 2002. This caused the Recyclers’ Association of South Africa, a body that represents scrap dealers and recyclers, to bring legal action against the department.

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/ 14 August 2006

Lauded abroad, despised at home

In the same week that Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Joice Mujuru was in Bloemfontein to attend the launch of the Progressive Women’s Movement of South Africa — which aims to build on the point of view that women’s rights are also human rights — 63 women, arrested on February 14, appeared in court in Zimbabwe for ”marching in the streets and handing out roses”.