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/ 23 October 2006
Zimbabwe’s money losing state airline hiked its fares by up to fivefold in record increases that put air travel out of the reach of all but the wealthiest Zimbabweans. New fares for local, regional and long-haul flights became effective on Friday after the airline again failed to meet costs for fuel, spare parts and foreign handling charges, Air Zimbabwe said in a statement on Monday.
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/ 23 October 2006
Reports indicating that shipping lines are considering a $50 congestion surcharge at the Durban Port could cost the economy about R500-million a year, says the official opposition’s public enterprises spokesperson Martin Stephens. Stephens said on Monday: "The additional costs for consumers could be much more."
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/ 23 October 2006
South Africa’s Department of Public Enterprises intends to create a broadband infrastructure company — called Broadband InfraCo — based on the long-distance fibre-optic network created by power parastatal Eskom and transport parastatal Transnet, says Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin.
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/ 23 October 2006
Zimbabwe’s central bank admitted on Monday it was losing the battle against spiralling inflation due to political and other factors outside its control. President Robert Mugabe’s government has branded inflation — which slowed to 1Â 023% in September but remains the world’s highest — its number one enemy.
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/ 23 October 2006
Initiation schools could avoid problems by avoiding commercialisation and keeping strict control, a public hearing on initiation schools heard on Monday. ”We don’t do it for gain. We do it for the pride that’s involved, the spirituality, the richness that’s involved,” said Titus Kgatoke, the secretary of an Ndebele initiation school based in Thembisa, north-east of Johannesburg.
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/ 23 October 2006
Parents wanting to decorate their children’s rooms, toys or playground equipment in bright colours should make sure the paint they use is lead-free, the Medical Research Council (MRC) warned on Monday. MRC health and development research group acting director Angela Mathee told the media the occurrence of lead in pigmented enamel paint her team had sampled was ”well over 80%”.
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/ 23 October 2006
Zambia is planning to invite foreign firms to conduct exploratory drills for oil and gas after the first-ever reserves were found near the border with Angola, the government said on Monday. Samples taken at a dozen sites in the north-western provinces of Zambezi and Chavuma over the weekend confirmed gas and oil residues in the impoverished Southern African country.
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/ 23 October 2006
Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement called on Monday for the start of a threatened ”holy war” against Ethiopian troops allegedly on Somali territory, saying their graves would litter the country. In a speech on the eve of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Islamists’ supreme leader urged all Somalis to immediately take up arms against invaders.
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/ 23 October 2006
Police and hundreds of protesters clashed on Monday in Budapest as Hungary commemorated the 50th anniversary of the country’s 1956 uprising against Soviet rule. A photographer said there had been arrests and state news agency MTI said some protesters had been beaten as police sought to move them further from Parliament.
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/ 23 October 2006
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday Western powers were wrong if they thought Iran would retreat under political pressure from its nuclear plans, even as the country faces possible sanctions. Iran faces the prospect of penalties after its case was sent back to the United Nations Security Council for failing to heed a UN demand to suspend uranium enrichment.