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/ 14 December 2005
Christine Ramon has resigned from her position as chief executive of gaming and entertainment group Johnnic Holdings Limited. "It is with great sadness that I have taken this decision, but with the change in effective control of Johnnic, I believe it is appropriate," she said.
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/ 14 December 2005
A British man who is fed up with hearing <i>Jingle Bells</i> in October has launched a bitter one-man war on Christmas overkill, sparking a counter-attack that he is behaving like Scrooge. He has created a website aimed at getting Britain to tone down the annual extravaganza of decorations and tired Yuletide songs.
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/ 14 December 2005
Piracy is a hot topic at this week’s World Trade Organisation summit in Hong Kong — so hot that the city’s notoriously vibrant pirate DVD businesses have decided to shut up shop during the talks. The huge security crackdown surrounding the six-day talks was blamed for driving out the pirates.
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/ 14 December 2005
The pen probably isn’t mightier than the sword — and sometimes it runs out of ink as well. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi got a helping hand on Wednesday from an unlikely source, rival Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, when his pen didn’t work as the two leaders signed the inaugural declaration of the East Asia Summit.
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/ 14 December 2005
South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for its inflation target, rose by 3,7% year-on-year in November after increasing by 4,4% in October, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
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/ 14 December 2005
The Internet Service Providers’ Association on Tuesday lodged a broad-ranging complaint with the Competition Commission regarding its claims that Telkom conducts anti-competitive activities in the sector. Many ISPs are forced to obtain their underlying telecommunications services from the fixed-line monopoly.
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/ 14 December 2005
As Bill Hicks said, once upon a time: "If I seem cruel and vicious, you have to understand that it’s because I <i>am</i>." Now that’s understood, let’s go indulge in cruelty — which is often good for a laugh.
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/ 13 December 2005
Adding zinc to the diets of HIV-positive children helps protect them, researchers report.
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/ 13 December 2005
A strong tremor triggered panic on Tuesday among survivors of October’s earthquake disaster in South Asia, forcing people out of temporary shelters and into the freezing Himalayan winter. Witnesses said it felt like the strongest tremor since the disastrous 7,6-magnitude earthquake on October 8.
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/ 12 December 2005
The MTN Group has acquired a 100% stake in Libertis Telecom, which has 190 000 subscribers, or a market base of less than 40%, in the Congo for a consideration of $102,5-million (R650-million), it was announced on Monday. The Congolese deal increases MTN’s footprint to 11 countries.
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/ 12 December 2005
Of course I don’t know much about football, but November seems to have been a bad month for soccer players called "George". George Weah collapsed on the penalty line just when he thought he had a chance to become the next president of Liberia, beaten on overtime by an elderly lady called Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who, it seems, got the job instead, on merit.
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/ 12 December 2005
Outwit. Outpublish. Outlast. That’s the rallying cry of the new entrants into South Africa’s booming magazine market, according to Josef Talotta. And how do they plan to do it? Finding the untapped "mindset" would appear to be the thing.
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/ 9 December 2005
<b>AUTHOR’S NOTES</b>: Melinda Ferguson speaks to <i>ZA@Play</i> about her new book <i>Smacked: A Harrowing True Story of Addiction and Survival</i>.
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/ 9 December 2005
The Brazilian government, in the person of Don Alhambra Goebbels-Von Ribbentrop, Prefect of Amazonia and Archbishop of Ipanema, was adamant that the past year’s inferno had merely been catastrophic, and not, as the environmental lobby claimed, apocalyptic.
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/ 9 December 2005
With a new front in the battle over transformation opening up, the General Council of the Bar is moving to limit the damage from civil action launched by a young black woman who alleges that her attempts to become an advocate are threatened by unjust treatment. Judges Dennis Davis and Basheer Wagley heard an application to review a decision by the National Bar Examination Board to refuse Makhosazana Mngomezulu an oral exam.
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/ 9 December 2005
Two members of the North West Gambling Board have resigned over alleged attempts to rush through approval of the proposed empowerment deal between Sun International and a consortium led by former North West premier Popo Molefe.
Khakhane Leballo and Medi Mokuena resigned last week, leaving the board with just four members and thus without a quorum to approve the deal.
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/ 9 December 2005
What a sordid end to a sordid year! The rape charge laid against Jacob Zuma this week, which effectively ended his political career, rounded off 12 months that have shaken the foundations of our democracy. The African National Congress has been split and so have the allied organisations with which it governs the country.
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/ 8 December 2005
Fitch Ratings has upgraded the national ratings of FirstRand Bank Holdings Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary FirstRand Bank Limited to a long term ‘AA(zaf)’ from ‘AA-(minus)(zaf)’ and ‘AA+(zaf)’ from ‘AA(zaf)’ respectively. The Outlooks remain Stable. All other ratings have been affirmed. A detailed list of ratings is provided at the end of this statement.
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/ 8 December 2005
Nominal house price growth declined further to 14,7% year-on-year in November 2005, according to the latest Absa House Price Index. This was the lowest year-on-year growth since mid-2002 and brought the average house price in the middle segment of the market to about R727 700 in November this year.
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/ 8 December 2005
Vodacom this month launched South Africa’s first mobile TV service which is accessible by subscribers with Vodafone live! 3G cellphones, the cellphone operator announced on Thursday, adding that these users would be able to watch live TV on their cellphones.
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/ 8 December 2005
The Department of Land Affairs is set on achieving its target of 30 percent redistribution of agricultural land by 2015, excluding the 13 percent that constituted the former homelands and the South African Development Trust areas.
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/ 7 December 2005
The South African Competition Tribunal has, with a condition, ruled in favour of Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) in a deal that will see the investment firm increasing its stake in Johnnic Holdings. HCI owns a regional youth radio station Yfm, free-to-air e.tv and co-owns the two-year-old Tsogo Sun with Johnnic and SABMiller.
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/ 7 December 2005
Over a million illegal cigarettes were destroyed at Cato Ridge on Wednesday, the South African Revenue Service said in a statement. The illegal cigarettes were seized over a period of four months this year and have an estimated market value of R720 000.
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/ 7 December 2005
India’s Health Minister, Ambumani Ramadoss, has described his own country’s main Aids body as “visionless”.
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/ 6 December 2005
<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>South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has called its top decision-making body, the national working committee, to a meeting on Tuesday evening "to consider matters pertaining" to the charge brought against former Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
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/ 6 December 2005
At least 100 people were killed on Tuesday when an Iranian military C-130 transport plane crashed into a residential area of the capital Tehran, official media and local officials said. State radio said all 94 passengers and crew died in the crash next to a high-rise housing block and domestic gas supply depot.
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/ 6 December 2005
The High Court of South Africa on Tuesday today approved the acquisition of Aflease Gold and Uranium Resources by Canadian-listed Southern Cross Resources. Southern Cross is acquiring all the issued shares of Aflease through a scheme of arrangement.
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/ 6 December 2005
South African transport utility Transnet on Monday reported operating profit of R3,1-billion for the six months ended September 30 — almost the same level as the corresponding period a year ago. Revenues were 8% up at R24,2-billion, while capital and reserves have surged 70% to R23,7-billion.
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/ 6 December 2005
Pregs Govender, Fatima Hassan, Kaamilah Joseph, Rhoda Kadalie, Patricia Kumalo, Alice Kwaramba-Kanengoni, Jackie Loffell, Colleen Lowe Morna, Evangelina Shirley Mabusela, Nomkhosi Sylvia Mdluli, Sheila Meintjes, Shereen Mills, Janine Moolman, Siphokazi (Sipho) Mthathi, Marcella Naidoo, Farai Samhungu, Delphine Serumaga, Tammy Shefer, Carrie Shelver, Natalie Simons, Elinor Sisulu, Joan van Niekerk , Lisa Vetten
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/ 5 December 2005
Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) has received valid acceptances representing about 6,7% of the shares in Johnnic Holdings (JNC) which will take its stakeholding in the gaming and entertainment group to about 46,5%. HCI said on Monday that valid acceptances in terms of its mandatory offer for Johnnic had been received for 11 082 782 Johnnic shares.
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/ 5 December 2005
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced on Monday that it will issue a licence for a second fixed line telephone operator (SNO) on Friday. The SNO will provide competition for telecommunications giant Telkom (which, until now, has commanded a monopoly over the industry.
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/ 5 December 2005
A city of more than half a million people was forced to cut off its water supply as a toxic slick slowly moved down one of China’s large rivers towards the Russian border, state media said on Monday. The taps were turned off Sunday in Jiamusi, home to 550 000 people, as the potentially lethal chemical pool approached along the Songhua river.