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/ 16 May 2005

Project became legend

The first Volkswagen Golf GTI was conceptualised over sandwiches and beer by some rather recalcitrant Germans back in March 1973. The first GTI, weighing just 820kg, made its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1975 as a project car, but the public response was so strong that VW had to put it into "limited" production.

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/ 16 May 2005

Showdown at sunset

The dust will soon settle on Harmony’s bid for Gold Fields, but its consequences are a parable for corporate South Africa in general and the declining mining industry in particular. No sooner had the Competition Tribunal given a conditional green light for the hostile bid to proceed, than Harmony and its spin doctors were preparing shareholders for its failure.

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/ 16 May 2005

Making a bull market for Swaziland’s cows

When is a cow considerably more than the sum of its parts? When the animal happens to live in one of a good many developing countries, probably — not least Swaziland. In this small Southern African state, cattle are, paradoxically, both slaughtered to mark cultural events and kept alive at all costs by owners who have grown attached to them.

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/ 15 May 2005

‘Mercs’ come home

All 61 South African alleged mercenaries were allowed into the country by immigration officials at the Beit Bridge border post on Sunday afternoon. The men were released from the Chikurubi maximum security prison outside Harare on Saturday night, where they spent a year after being convicted of violating Zimbabwe’s immigration, aviation, firearms and security laws.

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/ 15 May 2005

Jake White sticks to the ‘formula he knows’

There were a number of shocks and omissions in Jake White’s 33-man Springbok squad announced on Saturday night. White has included three new caps: Bulls hooker Gary Botha, Lions scrumhalf Enrico Januarie and Tonderai Chavhanga from Western Province, but it is the players he left out that will no probably cause the most consternation.

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/ 15 May 2005

Uzbekistan on the brink

The violence that has reportedly killed hundreds of protesters in eastern Uzbekistan appeared to be spreading to neighbouring towns on Saturday night, raising fears that the volatile Central Asian state could erupt into a full-scale revolution.