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/ 4 December 2006
"Men think that seeking legal protection is a woman’s thing only," says Nombulelo Mkhuma, a paralegal at Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre. A new study points out that both men and women are affected by domestic abuse in their families, although they experience it differently.
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/ 4 December 2006
Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni’s Christmas present to South Africans will be money that costs more. Mboweni and the bank’s monetary policy committee meet on December 6 and 7 to decide on interest rates. Analysts say an interest rate hike of at least 50 basis points is a done deal, but retailers are gearing up for a record-breaking festive season.
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/ 4 December 2006
Being called a "hard-nosed sceptic" is one of the greatest compliments you can receive as a journalist or economic commentator. To be described thus by the president of the country is a rare honour — and I am not engaging in the searing sarcasm the president has visited on those he deems out of line.
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/ 4 December 2006
A friend of mine called me from a police precinct the other day. He said it was the last call he was making before being locked up for domestic violence. He is a reasonable guy at the best of times. Never in the many years that I have known and socialised with him has he been violent, not even against other men.
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/ 4 December 2006
”In the endgame,” said one of the world’s best-ever chess players, Jose Raul Capablanca, ”don’t think in terms of moves but in terms of plans.” The situation in Iraq is now unravelling into the bloodiest endgame imaginable. Both popular and official support for the war in those countries that ordered the invasion is already at a low and will only get lower.
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/ 4 December 2006
You have to hand it to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir — unlike most strongmen in the world, he at least has a sense of occasion. This week, while holding a live press conference from Sudan — with reporters from Washington, London, Paris, Moscow, Cairo, Beirut and Pretoria, who joined in by video link — he found it necessary to accuse ”the media [of] spreading false information”.
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/ 4 December 2006
The deaths of four French climbers who tried to scale a 7 242m Himalayan summit after crossing illegally into Tibet has highlighted the high-risk culture of ”peak hopping” in the growing adventure sport. The group had bought a relatively inexpensive permit for the 5 928m Mount Paldor, about 80km north of Kathmandu, which is described as a ”straightforward climb”.
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/ 4 December 2006
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stormed to a re-election victory in Sunday’s vote, handing him an ample mandate to broaden his promised socialist revolution and challenge Washington’s influence in Latin America. Chávez told cheering supporters at his presidential palace late Sunday his landslide was a blow to United States President George Bush’s administration.
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/ 4 December 2006
An unusually well-preserved 65-million-year-old dinosaur nest containing fossil eggs sold in an auction for nearly 000. Auction house Bonhams & Butterfields had estimated the raptoid nest would go for between 000 and 000, auction officials said.
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/ 4 December 2006
Peace can never be taken for granted, and the first responsibility of any government is security. That is why France wishes to contribute to a political structuring of the world that averts perils. It wishes to help in the exercise of shared responsibility within the framework of strong, legitimate and accepted international institutions, writes Jacques Chirac, the president of France.