Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate fell to 252% last month, marking a steady decline since February this year. The government Central Statistical Office said year-on-year inflation dropped 62% from August. Between August and September, prices increased by 6%.

The recent deaths of the two South Africans killed in Iraq last week brings the number of South Africans killed in Iraq this year to 11. The remains of two South Africans are to arrive at Johannesburg International Airport on Sunday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

HIV infection rates among Cambodia’s 12-million population are just under 3%, the highest in Asia. Only one in five of the 25 000 Aids sufferers in Cambodia who are likely to die within 12 months receives palliative care. ‘Most just rot to death,’ says one HIV worker at a Medecins Sans Frontieres clinic.

America’s increasingly bitter election turned ugly amid a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks on issues ranging from the candidates’ Vietnam war records to Teresa Heinz Kerry’s tax returns. As the race enters its final stretch, both campaigns are relentlessly on the offensive in a brutally negative campaign.

Zimbabwe’s youth were once considered Africa’s brightest, graduates of one of the continent’s best education systems which bred sophistication, confidence and ambition. But as the economy crumbles, Harare’s destitute middle class nurses, teachers and police officers are turning to prostitution.

Bush Bucks escaped slaughter when they drew 2-2 with Kaizer Chiefs in a dull Castle Premiership match in front of a paltry crowd. The Eastern Cape visitors were promised all sorts of humiliation by the Chiefs but instead Bucks played their hearts out and gave Chiefs a scare when they were the first to rattle the net.

The Blue Bulls stampeded into their third consecutive Absa Currie Cup final with a hard-fought 40-33 semi-final win over the Lions at Loftus on Saturday afternoon. The Bulls scored four tries to three, but the 25 points by flyhalf Derick Hougaard proved the difference on the scoreboard at the end of the bruising 80 minutes.

It’s a Blue Bulls versus Free State Currie Cup final following a stunning upset at Newlands on Saturday evening. Free State beat Western Province 17-11 in an error-ridden contest in which they were simply the better side at playing in a persistent downpour.

President Thabo Mbeki denounced as ”racists” those who draw attention to crime in the country and suggest it is rising. He said such reports depict African people ”as savages”. So it is at risk of being unPC that one records that they came for Andrew, getting away with a cellphone. And the life of a dependable guy…

Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, is the hub of Arab America. Where electoral politics are concerned, it is extremely important. The latest tracking poll shows the Democrats leading by four percentage points in the swing state of Michigan; Arab-Americans comprise 5% of the state’s vote. By luck rather than design Arab-Americans are a sizeable force in many swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.