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/ 5 December 2006
South African banks have drawn nearly two million poor people into the banking net in the past two years but most of them remain financially illiterate and still prefer informal saving vehicles, a new study shows. The survey, released on Tuesday by research group FinMark Trust, found that since October 2004, 1,9-million people opened a low-cost bank account.
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/ 5 December 2006
Painter Roy Newell, one of the original American abstract expressionists and a favourite of artist Willem de Kooning, died of cancer in November in Manhattan, his wife said. He was 92. Newell, a Manhattan native, was renowned as a perfectionist who would spend decades creating a single painting.
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/ 5 December 2006
Tributes poured in at the end of November following the death of Bernard Rimland, considered the godfather of modern autism research. Rimland (78) died at a southern California care facility in the second-last week of November after losing a fight against cancer, said the director of the Autism Research Institute founded by the late doctor.
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/ 5 December 2006
Diehard Afrikaners living in South Africa’s sole whites-only town, Orania, on Tuesday said the settlement of a land claim is a boost for their quest for self-sufficiency and independence. "We’re very satisfied that the claim lodged by about 80 people was settled on Monday and that the state is paying them R2,9 million," town spokesperson Eleanor Lombard told the media by telephone.
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/ 5 December 2006
Researchers are creating a global malaria map to tackle the killer disease by pinpointing the areas where it strikes most often. The map, the first in 40 years, is designed to spot mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite and determine where they are likely to infect people so the best control and treatment strategies can be implemented.
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/ 5 December 2006
At least 24 bids have been received for a multimillion-rand HIV/Aids communication tender, the Health Department said on Tuesday. The tender for the government HIV/Aids communication programme, i>Khomanani, closed on Friday, said spokesperson Sibani Mngadi.
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/ 5 December 2006
President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday used the state visit of Canadian Governor General Michaëlle Jean as an opportunity to raise concerns about Europe’s treatment of migrants from Africa. Mbeki held talks with Jean at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and at a press conference afterwards said she was an example of how migrants could succeed in their new countries if given a chance.
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/ 5 December 2006
The Red Cross Society in Zambia warned on Tuesday that half the country’s youth risk dying of HIV/Aids as it launched a -million appeal to finance a scale-up of its fight against HIV. According to UNAids statistics 1,1-million Zambians out of the population of 11-million are living with the virus.
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/ 5 December 2006
Pakistan could be willing to give up its claim to Kashmir if India agrees to a self-government plan for the disputed Himalayan region, Pervez Musharraf said on Tuesday. The Pakistani President said his country would back wide-ranging autonomy or self-governance for Kashmir, with Islamabad and New Delhi jointly supervising the region.
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/ 5 December 2006
Nasa said on Monday it plans to build a permanently occupied base on the moon, most likely at the lunar south pole. The habitat will serve as a science outpost as well as a testbed for technologies needed for future travel to Mars, and construction will follow a series of flights to the moon scheduled to begin by 2020.