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/ 23 June 2006

Probe into allegations of price-fixing at BA

Britain’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said on Thursday it was investigating ”alleged price coordination” related to the imposition of fuel surcharges within the airline sector and that it had visited British Airways (BA) as part of the probe. BA earlier announced that the OFT and the United States Department of Justice were investigating alleged cartel activity involving it and other airlines.

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/ 23 June 2006

Prosecutors seek life sentence for army chief

Prosecutors at the United Nations genocide tribunal for Rwanda on Thursday sought a life sentence for a former military academy chief accused of genocide in the country’s 1994 mass slaughter. They said Tharcisse Muvunyi deserved the maximum sentence that can be handed down by the International Criminal Court for Rwanda for killing Tutsis in several localities in the southern town of Butare.

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/ 23 June 2006

Toshiba to launch HD DVD recorder in July

Toshiba said on Thursday it will start selling the world’s first recorders for the HD DVD high-definition video disc next month. The new recorder, the RD-A1, combines an HD DVD burner with a one-terabyte hard disk and can record and store up to 130 hours of high-definition broadcasts, Toshiba said in a statement.

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/ 23 June 2006

Socceroos into the second round

Wild celebrations erupted across Australia on Friday after the Socceroos secured a vital draw in their do-or-die match against Croatia to reach the last 16 of the World Cup for the first time. Melbourne’s Federation Square had to be closed off after more than 9 000 people jammed into the precinct.

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/ 23 June 2006

DKNY, Diesel, Durban

"The wonderful cultural mix in Durban definitely has an effect on my work, because there is no one style of dressing," said fashion designer Amanda Laird Cherry. "It’s so inspiring to walk down Grey Street and see people in punjabis and kurthas, men walking with skins in their belts, a traditional Shembe stick and a briefcase. You see this every day, and you can’t help but be inspired."

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/ 23 June 2006

Cold-eyed China

Celebrating a half century of dealings with Africa, China’s policies still wear the cloak of ideology but are increasingly driven by a cold-eyed self-interest. When it tied the diplomatic knot with Egypt in 1965 Beijing was speaking of mutual respect and mutual benefit — a refrain it maintained for the next 40 years or more.

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/ 23 June 2006

Govt acts on ‘banana’ varsity

Severe governance upheavals at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) have prompted the intervention of Minister of Education Naledi Pandor. But some members of the DUT council fear the minister could dilute or even halt a forensic audit into alleged financial irregularities, and possible fraud, involving more than R150-million.

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/ 23 June 2006

Court gives Aids prisoners hope

Treatment of HIV/Aids, including the provision of anti-retroviral drugs, will now be available to inmates of Durban’s Westville Prison after a Durban High Court ruling by Judge Thumba Pillay. Fifteen HIV-positive prisoners had taken the prison and the departments of health and correctional services to court to force them to fulfil their constitutional and legal obligation to provide treatment.

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/ 23 June 2006

New black farmers want better Land Bank

A land reform project in Worcester is on the brink of collapse after nature and bureaucracy conspired against the 52-strong community. They say the Land Bank has been a major cause of their woes. "We’ve been able to keep other creditors at bay, but the bank is demanding its pound of flesh," said community member Niklaas Prins.

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/ 23 June 2006

The future of Cosatu

Always an unconditional supporter of the African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has for the first time publicly mooted an independent future and a different political mate. In a path-breaking document released last week, the organised working class is presented with five visions of its political future.