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/ 25 November 2005

April 13 to 21 2006

Build and be damned It is a sad day in our country when eminent persons with an admirable track record in government, such as Mike Muller, feel compelled to rubbish the mandated custodians of South Africa’s rich natural heritage, SANParks, “and their allies”, for objecting to appallingly poor planning decisions (“SANParks retreats to its old […]

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/ 25 November 2005

February 16 to February 22 2007

Heed your subjects’ cries! Paul Harris, you are my banker. Invest wisely: R20-million would help hire and train more than 20 000 more policemen and women. You cannot stay on the sidelines and expect the government to provide all the time. Be ingenious. Come up with plans in tandem with government. Do not seek personal […]

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/ 25 November 2005

September 15 to 21 2006

Mindless vilification The opprobrium heaped on Ronnie Kasrils by the Zionist lobby (Letters, September 8) has a lengthy pedigree. Writing in 1970s Britain, Labour MP Christopher Mayhew and journalist Michael Adams provide an insightful analysis of Zionist rancour in their book Publish It Not (The Middle-East Cover-Up). Particularly ludicrous and threadbare is the accusation of […]

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/ 25 November 2005

August 04 – August 10 2006

In Cyril we trust If Cyril Ramaphosa makes himself available for the presidency, it could be the best thing ever to happen to the African National Congress and the country. Unlike Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, he has tasted the mood of both business and labour by being a union and business leader. As he […]

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/ 25 November 2005

August 25 – August 31 2006

Good riddance, Carroll As a 25-year-old Indian woman who grew up in Durban, I remember the days before the release of Nelson Mandela. I remember going to a school for Indians only. I remember going to Addington beach as part of a protest when it was whites-only, and I remember a policeman with a rifle […]

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/ 25 November 2005

March 10 – March 16

DA is getting stronger In her analysis of the 2006 local election results (March 3), Vicki Robinson reached the premature conclusion that support for the Democratic Alliance had dropped and that the DA had once again failed to make inroads in the townships. A proper post-election analysis shows that the opposite is true: in 2006, […]

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/ 25 November 2005

Burundi rebels fire mortars on capital

Burundi’s last active rebel group launched mortars at the capital Bujumbura in an attack hours after the country’s army claimed to have killed 41 insurgents in recent weeks, the military said on Friday. The National Liberation Forces fired three 60mm shells on Bujumbura’s eastern Mutanga and Mutanga south districts late on Thursday, without causing casualties.

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/ 25 November 2005

Absa ready to fund BEE deals

Banking group Absa says it is well prepared to add impetus to the empowerment drive — one of South Africa’s delicate initiatives central to the successful transformation of our society and its economy. Absa is ready to take the country’s black economic empowerment (BEE) process to greater heights, the group says.

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/ 25 November 2005

Volcanoes erupt in Comoros, Colombia

Ash blanketed the Comoros capital on Friday after the Indian Ocean archipelago’s Mount Karthala erupted for the second time this year, spewing smoke and cinders over the nation’s main island of Grand Comore. Meanwhile, Volcano Galeras, located near Colombia’s southern Colombia border with Ecuador, began erupting on Thursday.

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/ 25 November 2005

Primedia’s turnover up 27%

Listed South African media group Primedia on Friday reported that it achieved turnover growth of 27% for the four months to 31 October 2005. Providing a business update on Friday, CEO William Kirsch said this was a combination of excellent organic and innovative growth, as well as the benefits of acquisitions concluded this year.

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/ 25 November 2005

Koreans tread murky water

About 85% of the companies licensed to longline fish for tuna in local waters have question marks against their fishing rights. They include nine Korean ships operating in South Africa with local joint-venture partners, despite apparent evidence that they were granted quotas by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s Marine and Coastal Management.

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/ 25 November 2005

Airline kulula backs free-skies report

South Africa’s low-cost, no-frills airline, kulula.com, wants to cut high Southern African ticket prices by at least 50%, but it is battling to get rights to routes that have restricted flight frequencies and seat capacity. kulula’s executive director, Gidon Novick, says regional routes are controlled by agreements between countries. These generally only allow one airline carrier.

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/ 25 November 2005

The other revolution

There is a revolution spreading countrywide. It is happening in towns and cities as disparate as Knysna and Johannesburg, in big places like Durban, Cape Town and Tshwane, and small ones like Stellenbosch. At least 34 other muncipalities are also in on the game, racing to set up their own telecommunication networks.

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/ 24 November 2005

Sudan accuses Chad of incursions

Sudan accused neighbouring Chad on Thursday of violating its airspace, sending troops across the border and supporting rebels in the war-torn western region of Darfur. The foreign ministry said a Chadian military plane overflew the Darfur town of Kubus near the border on November 5 and that several aircraft also violated Sudan’s airspace two days later.

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/ 24 November 2005

Bosnia to ‘beat’ Hong Kong with Bruce Lee statue

Youths in the Bosnian city of Mostar said on Thursday they were delighted they would beat Hong Kong to erect a statue honouring the late martial arts film legend Bruce Lee. The statue is to be unveiled at the weekend in the southern city more famous for its 16th-century Ottoman bridge, which reopened last year after being destroyed during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war.

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/ 24 November 2005

Foreigners in Kuwait need a degree to drive

Foreigners in oil-rich Kuwait must be university graduates and draw a salary of not less than $1 370 a month in order to obtain a driver’s licence, the interior ministry said on Thursday. The new rules, which are effective immediately, are designed to reduce the number of vehicles on roads in the Gulf state which have recently seen serious bottlenecks and accidents.

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/ 24 November 2005

Economists welcome October PPI

South Africa’s October 2005 producer price index (PPI) rose by 4,2% year-on-year from a 4,6% increase in September, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. The October PPI is "well below market expectations", said George Glynos, market analyst at Econometrix Treasury Management.

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/ 23 November 2005

Bulletproof vests for dogs

Now man’s best friend can take a round in the chest and live to bark about it too, thanks to a new bulletproof vest for dogs. Manufactured by the German firm Mehler, the 3kg protective garment is on display this week at a high-tech security trade show outside Paris.

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/ 23 November 2005

October CPIX ‘fairly low’

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 for its inflation target, rose by 4,4% year-on-year in October after increasing by 4,7% in September, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.

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/ 22 November 2005

JSE to list, implement BEE initiative

The JSE is planning to list next year. The stock exchange said on Tuesday it believes that listing the bourse is appropriate. The JSE board has also authorised the JSE executive to finalise a proposal to shareholders to implement a broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) initiative to demonstrate further its support of BEE.

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/ 22 November 2005

Merkel takes the reins in Germany

Angela Merkel was sworn in as Germany’s first woman Chancellor before the Bundestag Lower House of Parliament following her formal election by the chamber on Tuesday. The pastor’s daughter became Germany’s eighth post-war leader and the first person from the former communist east to take the helm of the reunited country.

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/ 22 November 2005

World’s ugliest dog dies at 14

Sam, the dog whose ugliness earned him television appearances, limousine rides and even a meeting with Donald Trump, has died, the <i>Santa Barbara News-Press</i> reported on Tuesday. The pooch with the hairless body, crooked teeth and sparse tuft of hair atop his knobby head died on Friday.

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/ 22 November 2005

Aids: Dept of Health blames old govt

Government inaction before 1994 is the main reason why HIV infection has not been curbed, the Department of Health said on Tuesday. A new report on HIV/Aids by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation noted this week that at least 85% of South Africans needing anti-retroviral drugs had not received them by mid-2005.