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/ 14 September 2005

Talk is cheap, and getting cheaper

The roads are dirt tracks, the children are barefoot, and there are no street lights in Funyula village, western Kenya. But as darkness falls, and villagers huddle around paraffin lamps, three red neon lights come to life on a hillside overlooking their huts. They illuminate a cellphone mast, the latest addition to the landscape.

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/ 14 September 2005

Suicide bomber kills 75, injures 162 in Baghdad

A car bomb went off Wednesday in a Shi’ite district of Baghdad killing at least 75 people and wounding 162 in one of the most deadly single attacks to date in Iraq, a security official said giving figures obtained from five hospitals. The car was driven by a suicide bomber who drove at speed into a group of construction workers waiting on Uruba square, in the Kazimiyah district, to be hired for daily work.

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/ 14 September 2005

Mother-tongue education in a twist

Some significant legal and political victories for mother-tongue education were gained in the recent past. In relation to Afrikaans in particular, there was Mikro Primary Schools successful defence against court action by the Western Cape department of education to enforce its language policy on the school governing body (SGB).

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/ 14 September 2005

Annan won’t step down

Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, recently described the findings of the investigation into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal as "painful" and "embarrassing" and underlined an urgent need for reform of the world organisation. Annan accepted personal responsibility, but made it clear he was not going to resign.

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/ 14 September 2005

Strange news and new discoveries

Truth is stranger than fiction. Yes, that’s the clunky theme this week, which hopefully will hold this column together to give it the appearance of being a well thought-out exploration into the nature of life, reality and our place in the universe, using the metaphor of strange news and new discoveries as a vehicle for conveying this.

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/ 14 September 2005

Three Sambou officials in court

Three senior officials of the collapsed Saambou Bank appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday on 13 financial charges involving about R640-million. Gerhardus De Clerck, Johan Myburgh and Charles Edwards face 10 charges of fraud, one of theft and two of contravening the Companies Act.

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/ 14 September 2005

Consolidating debt to save money

Until recently, only the privileged few who earned enough to belong to the private bank club received the benefits of debt consolidation. Debt consolidation is basically the consolidation of one’s debt into a single account, which usually forms part of your home loan and therefore attracts lower interest rates. Several banks have launched debt consolidation products for retail clients.