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/ 12 September 2006

Africa attracts interest from UK pension funds

Africa — dismissed in the United Kingdom media six years ago as "The Hopeless Continent" — is beginning to attract the attention of UK pension funds as an investment destination with substantial long-term potential. Botswana-registered Imara financial-services group reported this week that its Imara African Opportunities Fund has received its first inflows from a UK pension fund.

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/ 10 September 2006

Coca-Cola plant opened in Kabul

President Hamid Karzai Sunday formally opened a $25-million Coca-Cola bottling plant, one of the most significant investments in Afghanistan since the ousting of the Taliban five years ago. Karzai said it was an endorsement of the government’s efforts to push ahead with reconstruction of the war-damaged country.

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/ 8 September 2006

Global warming show too hot for Australia

The Australian government has withdrawn funding for a climate-change conference after organisers booked lingerie models for a raunchy dinner show.
Conservative Prime Minister John Howard on Friday described the risque entertainment as "not appropriate" and two government departments withdrew funding totalling $6 000 from the event late on Thursday.

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/ 8 September 2006

uShenge fights for his throne

The KwaZulu-Natal Leadership and Governance Act, ushered in recently to transform traditional leadership in the province, could see IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi meeting his political Waterloo. The law, which dissolved the provincial house of traditional leaders chaired by Buthelezi, has already stripped him of his powers.

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/ 8 September 2006

On a personal note

<b>CD of the week:</b>

Pat Metheny:<i> One Quiet Night</i>

‘On November 24 2001 I went to my home studio, turned on the recorder and spent the evening playing. I had rediscovered a special low Nashville tuning that I had worked with some years ago, and applied it to a recently acquired baritone guitar.” That’s Pat Metheny. <b>Matthew Krouse</b> reviews this week’s CD choice

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/ 8 September 2006

Don’t tell Manto

I harbour a great sympathy for our embattled Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. It’s not her fault. She was sent on her absurd HIV/Aids denialist safari by her boss, the celebrated air-traveller, Thabo Mbeki. He has often stated that his personal clinical findings have proved that the HIV has nothing whatsoever to do with Aids which, anyway, is only a syndrome and not a disease.

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/ 8 September 2006

Contrition not enough

Readers of the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s predecessor, <i>The Weekly Mail</i>, may remember a July 1991 front page picture of then law and order minister Adriaan Vlok sporting a Pinocchio proboscis with the headline, "Oh dear, Mr Vlok, you lied". Vlok claimed to have accounted for every cent of the covert funding of the Inkatha Freedom Party by the police at the height of the dirty war in Kwazulu-Natal, which was, of course, not true.

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/ 8 September 2006

Kasrils and South Africa: apologists for Iran

When he first began speaking out against Israel in 2001, Ronnie Kasrils insisted he was not equating Israelis with Nazis: "I am not making that comparison," he told Parliament on 23 October 2001. Today Kasrils indulges such analogies brazenly: "Now Jews, too, have behaved like Nazis," he crowed last week. That he does so is a sign of how extreme the minister’s views have become as he has abandoned all pretence at moderation.

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/ 7 September 2006

Homicides slow in SA since 1990s

The number of homicides in South Africa has declined since the late 1990s, a study by Statistics South Africa shows. However, it says homicide rates remain very high, especially for males in the 35-39 year age group. Homicide comprises the majority of unnatural deaths for males in this age group and male homicide rates are about six times higher than female homicide rates, the study found.

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/ 7 September 2006

Inmates keep phones in bowels in El Salvador jail

Four prisoners in an El Salvador jail hid cellphones, a phone charger and spare chips in their bowels so they could coordinate crimes from their cells, prison officials said on Wednesday. The four men, all gang members, wrapped their phones and accessories in plastic and inserted them into their rectums "far enough to reach their intestines".

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/ 6 September 2006

Heineken profits fizz in emerging markets

Dutch brewing giant Heineken on Wednesday reported a 25,5% net profit gain in the first six months of the year but warned that the final six months would pose tougher challenges. The group, citing strong performances in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the Americas, said net profit leapt to â,¬433-million in the first six months of the year.

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/ 6 September 2006

Don’t believe everything you read

The next time you look at the careers pages and see an advert for a position you might be interested in, don’t be led astray by the very attractive salaries published there, as these top packages are generally granted only to the very best in the field. These job advertisements can create unrealistic expectations with job seekers.

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/ 6 September 2006

Never lie about your salary

Inflating your current salary package during an interview may be a way of bumping up future earnings, but the risk of being found out and kicked off the shortlist far outweighs the potential reward, says Debbie Goodman, MD of Jack Hammer Executive Headhunters, which places many of the top executives in South Africa’s leading corporations.

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/ 5 September 2006

Zuma: State moves for postponement

<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>It was not clear why the state wanted to have Jacob Zuma’s trial postponed, African National Congress KwaZulu-Natal deputy chairperson Zweli Mkhize told Zuma’s supporters outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday. Mkhize said there had been argument between Judge Herbert Msimang and state prosecutor Wim Trengove.

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/ 5 September 2006

Sacob’s August BCI declines

The South African Chamber of Business’ (Sacob) Business Confidence Index (BCI) declined marginally from 99,1 in July to 99 in August, Sacob said on Tuesday. Sacob said although the index declined marginally by 0,1 index point from July to August, the BCI was poised over developing balance of payments constraints and the prospect of remedial policy action.

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/ 5 September 2006

Runny honey causes bee scare in Switzerland

A leak of honey at a Swiss transport company drew a swarm of hungry bees and forced the emergency services to step in, police said on Tuesday. Hundreds of litres of honey flooded out of a damaged barrel, which was part of a shipment from Mexico, and thousands of bees spread the word that the feast was on, said Basel police spokesperson Klaus Mannhart.

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/ 4 September 2006

Grave found of Kurds ‘buried alive’

Iraqi security forces on Monday found the remains of 18 Kurdish men, women and children whom they believe were buried alive in a mass grave during the former regime of Saddam Hussein. Colonel Sarhad Kadar of the Iraqi police said the mass grave had been found in Tarkalan, 25km south-east of the northern city of Kirkuk.

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/ 4 September 2006

A new model of reform

It seems quite mild as you approach — just a long wire fence with an innocuous sign that says something about correctional services Boksburg. We’re way out in the veld in the middle of fast-growing suburbia, wondering why people would live here. But they do — signs of normality, schoolboys slouching down the roads in their green and grey uniforms in the middle of the morning.

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/ 4 September 2006

The key to ending poverty

Classrooms with teachers, clinics with nurses, running taps and working toilets — these basic public services are key to ending global poverty, according to a report by Oxfam and WaterAid. And they say only governments are in a position to deliver on the scale needed to transform the lives of millions living in poverty.

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/ 1 September 2006

‘Don’t shoot birds on our wires’

Thousands of homes in central South Africa were left without power on Friday after a marksman hit an overhead power line when taking a pot-shot at a bird sitting on the wire. A spokesperson for the Eskom power company said that two entire towns in the south-east of the central Free State province were blacked out after the incident at breakfast time.

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/ 1 September 2006

Retail petrol price to fall 36c

The retail price of all grades of petrol will decline by 36 cents per litre from September 6, the Department of Minerals and Energy Affiars said on Friday. The wholesale price of diesel 0,05% sulphur and 0,005% sulphur will fall by 25c/l and 29c/l respectively on the same date.