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/ 15 December 2006

Saints and martyrs

The Basilica San Paolo, also known as St Paul’s Outside the Walls, slumbers in marble splendour in an attractively shabby southern suburb of Rome. Graffiti-illuminated trains rattle and roar past its imposing cloister walls, and elderly harpies in heels goad tiny, furry martyrs resentful motion across the wide common at its rear that runs down towards the Tiber.

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/ 15 December 2006

Bushman land comes home

The Botswana High Court’s ruling in favour of the Bushmen who were forcibly removed from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, means that more than 1 000 displaced people can return immediately to their ancestral land. "It is their constitutional right to go back as soon as they like," said lawyer Gordon Bennett, who represented 239 applicants in the matter.

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/ 15 December 2006

Wireless in eThekwini

While customers in Tshwane are browsing and downloading to their hearts’ content, residents within the eThekwini municipality can expect a service that will offer broadband access and domestic voice calls for as little as R150 a month. The race to deliver cheaper broadband and telephony services to residents via municipal net works is alive and kicking.

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/ 15 December 2006

R50bn looking for a home on the JSE

While there have been concerns raised about South African listed companies being gobbled up by international private equity firms, the good news is that should these take-outs go ahead, there will be a R50-billion cash injection into the JSE. On the back of an announcement of Consol’s delisting, it is estimated that there are a further four companies that are in negotiations with private equity firms.

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/ 15 December 2006

Moonlight robbery in Mozambique

”It is illegal for foreigners to leave their hotels without their passports! The hotel lied to you by telling you to put them in the safe, and now you are in big trouble!” he shrieked. Mail & Guardian journalist Nicole Johnston and photographer Oupa Nkosi get taken for a ride by corrupt cops in Maputo.

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/ 15 December 2006

Racial split over Hlophe

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was reportedly split along racial lines as it deliberated on what to do about the most recent complaint against Cape Town Judge President John Hlophe. The full 23-member JSC panel met at OR Tambo International Airport to discuss the matter in a meeting described as protracted and heated.

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/ 15 December 2006

The year of the playwright

Evaluating the content of the Standard Bank National Arts Festival from year to year is a little like playing ping-pong with God. Last year’s work from the dominant theatres and directors took us on more of an excursion into overseas drama than our own. And just when it seemed that local had become un-lekker, this […]

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/ 15 December 2006

Oz approves therapeutic cloning laws

It’s rare that a proposal that is opposed by the prime minister, his deputy and the opposition leader, passes through Parliament to become law, but that’s what happened last week when the Australian Parliament approved a law enabling the creation of human embryos for use in medical research.

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/ 15 December 2006

Have yourself a dreary little Xmas

People on antiretroviral treatment in Zimbabwe are struggling with the price of the drugs having risen by 60% over the past year. ”We are suffering, unemployed and desperate. I can’t buy drugs or feed my four children. Christmas doesn’t mean anything to me and my family,” says Irene Kumbirai (34), a HIV-positive widow from Highfields township near Harare.