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Internet Services Resume In Zimbabwe
Harare (AFP) Sep 26, 2006 Internet services in Zimbabwe were restored after fixed telephone service provider TelOne paid its outstanding 700,000 dollar debt to Intelsat, a company spokesman said Tuesday. "We were bailed out by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe late Friday," Phil Chingwaru, TelOne spokesman said. "We were given one million US dollars although our bill was only 700,000 dollars." Intelsat, the international communication carrier, had cut the state-owned firm from the global gateway for debt arrears. Although TelOne has settled the Intelsat bill it is still saddled with other debts running into millions of dollars, Chingwaru said. He said to boost its foreign currency income, TelOne has diversified into horticulture, floriculture and tobacco and expects to earn 12 million dollars from exports. "We are also expecting another eight million euros from the sale of flowers," he said. The firm is reeling under a foreign currency crunch and has asked the government to compel diplomatic missions and Internet service providers to pay their monthly subscriptions in foreign currency, Chingwaru said. "We have the Zimbabwe dollar component, but what we need is foreign currency," he said. The southern African country is in the midst of an economic crisis characterised by four-digit inflation, soaring poverty levels, an unemployment rate hovering at over 70 percent and chronic shortages of fuel and basic goods such as cornmeal.
Source: Agence France-Presse Related Links Out Of Africa 
Africa, The World's 'Septic Tank'
Dakar (AFP) Sep 25, 2006"We talk of globalisation, of the global village, but here in Africa, we are under the impression of being that village's septic tank," says Senegalese ecologist Haidar al-Ali. A series of pollution scandals, ranging from the discharge of toxic waste in Ivory Coast to radioactive tanks in Somalia, show that Africa's poverty, corruption, and non-existent or malfunctioning democracies make it the world's preferred dumping ground. |
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