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/ 29 September 2005

New twist predicted to Nobel Prize

The Nobel Literature Prize has for decades gone to fiction writers and poets, but just days before this year’s winner is revealed, some say the prestigious prize could be awarded within a different genre altogether. Despite the list of usual suspects, the Swedish Academy might just have a surprise in store this year.

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/ 29 September 2005

Vilakazi accuser’s innocence questioned

The Benedict Vilakazi rape case on Wednesday saw his 15-year-old accuser’s innocence brought into question as it was shown she may have deceived her family and lied about her age. Defence counsel Ike Motloung said the girl’s guardians at the time had been ”led up the garden path to believe she was a virgin” when she was not.

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/ 29 September 2005

Arctic ice melts at record level

Global warming in the Arctic could be soaring out of control, scientists warned on Wednesday as new figures revealed that melting of sea ice in the region has accelerated to record levels. Experts at the United States National Snow and Data Centre in Colorado fear the region is locked into a destructive melting cycle.

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/ 29 September 2005

Altech posts rise in earnings

South African information and communications technology company Allied Technologies (Altech) posted a 15,3% rise in headline earnings per share to 181 cents for the six-month period ended August this year, from 157 cents reported a year earlier. Revenue jumped by 11% to R2,933-billion.

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/ 29 September 2005

Farm evictions all over again

A new wave of land invasions has rocked Zimbabwe, with at least five farmers being forced off their proper-ties in the past week. Armed militiamen, accompanied by the police, army and the Central Intelligence Organisation, have been behind a spate of evictions in the Manicaland district.

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/ 29 September 2005

Then is now

An editorial in this newspaper 12 years ago warned that typhoid was "producing images of medieval horror". Twelve years on, Delmas once again makes the same headlines. It is a double shame that a people’s government, now without the money troubles it inherited from the profligate and corrupt former regime should run an administration where "medieval horrors" are still commonplace.

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/ 29 September 2005

Six percent is possible

So, the South African economy has the legs to thrive in difficult times, job creation is cyclical in the short term and a year is a very long time in the lives of monetary policy authorities. These may be key lessons to learn in a week of mixed fortunes for the economy and markets.

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/ 29 September 2005

The pause that refreshes

When Dorsbult went dark this week, the manne just assumed that the mayor had hired Johannesburg’s municipality to run the town’s power supply; but at last a scouting party was sent, carrying lanterns and pitchforks, to the Dorsbult power station just to check. It quickly became clear that some catastrophe had taken place.