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/ 18 August 2006

Shops score ahead of Zim deadline

There is a section of Zimbabwe’s beleaguered society that is literally smiling all the way to the bank ahead of Monday’s deadline, under which locals are supposed to have deposited the old currency to pave way for a new set of bearer cheques — and that is the country’s commercial traders. The looming deadline has provoked panic buying.

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/ 18 August 2006

TAC tackles Manto’s fruity display at HIV conference

It was groundhog day for the South African government at the 16th International Aids Conference in Toronto this week, when a display of salad ingredients drew attention to the more controversial aspects of the national responses to HIV/Aids. The South African government stand was invaded by Treatment Action Campaign activists, some lying on the ground to symbolise South Africa’s Aids dead.

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/ 18 August 2006

Nelson and Naomi

Naomi Campbell refers to Nelson Mandela, as is the custom among famous young women who have met him at least twice, as ”granddad”. Emma Brockes talks to Ms Campbell, currently in South Africa for the birthday of an old friend.

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/ 18 August 2006

Economics, politics and Cosatu

From September 18 to 21, I will have the honour of presiding over the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) ninth national congress, at which more than 3 000 delegates from our 20 affiliated unions will hammer out a programme for the next three years and elect a leadership.

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/ 18 August 2006

How many Oscars has the British government won?

If you’re ever stuck for a tie-break question to decide a pub quiz, try this: How many Oscars has the British government won? This is not a joke about Tony Blair’s thespian tendencies; the answer is two. In 1944, the ministry of information’s Desert Victory won the first-ever Academy Award for documentary; and two years later the trophy was shared with the United States government for The True Glory.

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/ 18 August 2006

Love for laughs

Following the runaway success of popular US sicom Will & Grace, it appears that US television is coming out of the closet and is embracing more gay-themed content on the box these days. The creators of the hit series tell Matt Wells about the show’s inspiration.

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/ 18 August 2006

One hell of a ride

My Life is not a great book, in places it’s not even that good — but when you read it, you can’t help but feel you’re in the company, one on one, of the man himself. It’s his voice you hear on the page, for good and sometimes ill.” Jonathan Freedland reviews Bill Cinton’s autobiography.

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/ 18 August 2006

DRC election results test

The old sporting cliché that nice guys come second is about to be rigorously tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday if Jean-Pierre Bemba is named as the man in that position when the country’s election results are announced. How nice he will be depends on whether he has another crack at the incumbent president, Joseph Kabila.