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/ 19 November 2007
For more than a decade, Molefi Selibo has been sent from pillar to post by the South African authorities in a futile quest to own a plot of land for his family. ”Land to us, it is a very key issue. There is a hunger for land in South Africa,” says Selibo as he looks out across the rolling green hills of Muldersdrift.
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/ 19 November 2007
Finance ministers and central banks chiefs from the G20 grouping of largest economies meeting near Cape Town expressed ”deep concern” over the effect of climate change on global food prices and forecast a modest slowdown in global economic growth.
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/ 17 November 2007
Africa requires massive investment in its failing energy sector to boost economic growth and meet its goal of halving poverty, a United States-Africa business summit heard on Friday. Emerging economies required a 16% increase in energy to drive every 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, said Andrew Fawthrop, Chevron energy company’s Nigerian vice-president.
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/ 16 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation shot to almost 15 000% last month, almost double the previous month’s rate and the worst mark yet in the country’s struggle with hyperinflation, according to reports on Friday. The Zimbabwe Independent quoted official sources as saying annual inflation in October reached 14 850%.
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/ 16 November 2007
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s largest economies gather in Kleinmond in the southern Cape this weekend for a meeting of the Group of 20 countries. The event is described by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel as probably the most significant gathering of economic policymakers seen to date in South Africa.
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/ 16 November 2007
A new World Trade Organisation (WTO) accord could improve access to clean-energy tools in poorer countries, but any deal making it easier to ship cargo internationally would also carry a heavy carbon footprint. Environmental economists are uncertain about the relative merits of the WTO’s Doha round.
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/ 14 November 2007
A decade of healthy growth in Africa has put the continent on track to tackle its high poverty levels, the World Bank said on Wednesday, releasing its 2007 Africa Development Indicators. ”After years of stop-and-start results, many African economies appear to be growing at the fast and steady rates,” the report says.
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/ 31 October 2007
A surge in investment in solar power is bringing down costs of the alternative energy source, but affordability problems still dog hopes for the 1,6-billion people worldwide without electricity. The sun supplies only a tiny fraction — less than one 10th of 1% — of mankind’s energy needs. But its supporters believe a solar era may be dawning, boosted by Western funding to combat oil ”addiction”.
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/ 30 October 2007
African countries working jointly to construct an undersea telecoms cable should harmonise laws governing the sector if they are to land the much-awaited communications link, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. About 23 nations have long harboured a much-delayed plan to build the submarine cable to slash internet and calling costs.
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/ 29 October 2007
African leaders and technology experts met on Monday in Rwanda to discuss plans to boost the continent’s development by securing universal internet access by 2012. Several heads of state attended the Connect Africa gathering, organised by the International Telecommunication Union and supported by international bodies including the African Union.
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/ 26 October 2007
The Central African Republic’s President defended his country’s efforts to improve human rights at international donor talks on Friday meant to bolster much-needed economic and political reforms in his impoverished nation. Francois Bozize presented a new development strategy to European Union and United Nations officials.
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/ 23 October 2007
Mauritius wants to turn its economy into a regional information and communications technology (ICT) hub in the next few years, according to an official national strategic plan. Targets in the 2007 to 2011 plan include ”a 7% contribution into Mauritius gross domestic product from offshore ICT export services”.
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/ 23 October 2007
Talks on a deal to free up world trade are making progress, developing country leaders said on Monday, but the chairperson of key industry negotiations said more needed to be done to reach an agreement. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the Doha round of trade could end in a deal by the end of the year.
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/ 22 October 2007
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rodrigo Rato, warned on Monday there are risks of an "abrupt fall" in the dollar, linked to a loss of confidence in dollar assets. "There are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss of confidence in dollar assets," Rato told the IMF board of governors.
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/ 22 October 2007
A call for further cuts in corporate taxes was among a number of proposals made by the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday — aimed, it said, at growing the economy and encouraging foreign direct investment. Pierre Rabie, who speaks for the party on trade and industry, quoted the World Bank survey <i>Doing Business 2008</i>.
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/ 18 October 2007
Burma’s ruling junta on Thursday night announced the formation of a Constitution Drafting Commission, another step in the government’s ”road map” to democracy that is supposed to lead to free elections some time in the future. The move came after the junta brutally suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations last month.
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/ 17 October 2007
A delegation of rainforest pygmies from the Democratic Republic of Congo will fly to Washington this week to complain to the World Bank about its support for wholesale logging. The visit follows a leak of a report that criticised the bank for backing a number of logging projects without adequate consideration.
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/ 14 October 2007
The new heads at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) face the tough task of restoring credibility to the powerful financial bodies that hold an annual summit this month, analysts say. Negotiations are under way to reform the distribution of votes among the IMF’s 185 members.
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/ 14 October 2007
Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo has called for an investigation into long-standing accusations that cocoa and coffee boards have embezzled funds meant to aid the producers of the country’s lucrative crops, a spokesperson said. The boards set prices for crops, oversee exports and provide development assistance.
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/ 11 October 2007
World Bank president Robert Zoellick said Wednesday that globalisation must be ”inclusive and sustainable” if it is to help combat crushing poverty around the world. In a speech at the National Press Club, Zoellick said the World Bank should seek to foster such goals while guarding environmental protections.
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/ 10 October 2007
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has warned the opposition and civic groups that they will face treason charges if they reject his government’s plans to amend the Constitution, state media reported on Wednesday. ”President Mwanawasa says people daring his government over the National Constitution Conference (NCC) will be arrested for treason,” ZNBC radio said.
The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world’s second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts.
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation was launched in October 2006 to promote good governance in Africa with the support of world leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Alpha Konaré, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. On October 22 2007, the foundation will announce the winner of the world’s biggest prize, the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, to be awarded to a former African executive head of state.
Zimbabwe set out Wednesday to demonstrate that Western economic sanctions were hurting ordinary people, the poor and even the unborn. In its first detailed policy statement on sanctions, the central bank disputed claims from Britain and the United States that their ”targeted sanctions” — like travel bans on top officials — did not hurt most Zimbabweans.
Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest nations, said on Monday that despite recent efforts to grow the economy, it would be unable to meet the United Nations target date of halving poverty by 2015. A welfare-monitoring survey conducted by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development indicated that poverty dropped to 45% in Malawi in 2006, from 53,9% in 1998.
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/ 28 September 2007
The trigger for Burma’s crisis is primarily economic rather than political. Although the main focus of the thousands of Burmese who have been taking to the streets is a demand for an end to the army dictatorship, it was the economy that propelled most of them to risk their lives.
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/ 26 September 2007
Sleaze is hobbling the recovery of war-ravaged countries such as Iraq and Somalia, which have joined Burma among states perceived as the world’s most corrupt, an anti-graft watchdog reported on Wednesday. Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, covering 180 countries.
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/ 26 September 2007
Troops fired shots over the heads of a large crowd in central Yangon on Wednesday, sending people scurrying for cover as a crackdown intensified against the biggest anti-junta protests in 20 years. Security forces also fired tear gas at columns of monks trying to push their way past barricades sealing off the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma’s holiest shrine.
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/ 26 September 2007
Burma security forces sealed off Yangon’s Shwedagon Pagoda on Wednesday, fired tear gas and arrested up to 80 monks trying to get into the shrine, cracking down on the biggest anti-junta protests in nearly 20 years. Witnesses said some of the deeply revered Buddhist clergy were beaten by riot police taking them away from the shrine.
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/ 26 September 2007
Troops and riot police took up positions outside at least six big activist monasteries in Yangon on Wednesday as Burma’s junta tried to prevent monks leading new protest marches against military rule. There was no immediate word from the monks on whether they would risk their first major confrontation with the junta.
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/ 20 September 2007
The South African Cabinet has welcomed the recent breakthrough by the collective leadership of Zimbabwe on draft constitutional amendments. Zimbabwe’s main political parties have reportedly agreed that President Robert Mugabe should no longer be allowed to handpick members of the lower house of assembly.
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/ 20 September 2007
A United Nations-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed internet access to match the continent’s explosive growth in cellphones, officials said on Wednesday. In Africa, cellphones overtook fixed lines six years ago and now outnumber them nearly five to one.