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/ 26 September 2003

The curse of a quiet diplomacy

The shutdown of <i>The Daily News</i> is an assault on the values the people of this region believe in. Such acts are a cancer that must be fought by all who believe in democracy and freedom of expression. The <i>Mail & GuardianM</i> commits to providing a platform for the voices Robert Mugabe does not want to hear

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/ 26 September 2003

Clubs get high on Coke

South African soccer lovers — and the 16 Premier Soccer League club owners — are rubbing their hands in anticipation of some fine football and enormous rewards when the Coca-Cola Cup kicks off again this season. The winners walk away with a cool R2-million.

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/ 26 September 2003

The Gunners under fire

A former Tranmere Rovers stalwart who spent 15 years in the lower reaches of no-nonsense professional football, Football Association chief executive Mark Palios has seen it all. But I suspect even he was startled when Arsenal lost it on Sunday. He acted like a stern father, furious with a family member.

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/ 26 September 2003

Put away the red carpet

When the opposition’s down, kick them, says Graeme Smith, the 22-year-old captain of the Proteas. That’s why South Africa’s youngest captain is so disappointed his team could not finish off England. But the skipper’s enthusiasm and passion rubbed off on a side still down from a disappointing World Cup.

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/ 26 September 2003

Foreign firms favoured in Iraq

Iraq’s finance minister unveiled sweeping investment laws last week to give foreign companies unprecedented access to the Iraqi firms that are to be sold off in a privatisation windfall. Under the new rules, foreign firms will have the right to wholly own Iraqi companies, except those in the oil, gas and mineral industries.

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/ 26 September 2003

Chatroom closure panned

Rival companies have accused Microsoft of cynical commercialism for pulling the plug on its Internet chatrooms. MSN — the Internet arm of Bill Gates’s Microsoft empire — said it took the decision after a series of high-profile cases involving children being abused by adults they had met in chatrooms.

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/ 26 September 2003

Politics that fail the people

With the end of apartheid, many hoped that life for the people of Southern Africa would begin to yield something entirely different from the unhappy past. Unfortunately things have not turned out this way and the daily news from the hole in the region we still call Zimbabwe underlines this. So, what did happen to Southern Africa’s post-apartheid moment?