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/ 8 December 2004

Transnet declares interim profit

State-owned South African transport group Transnet has reported an interim pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of September of R774-million, resulting from a 5,3% rise in turnover to R22,4-billion, after posting a loss of R1,06-billion in the year-earlier period.

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/ 8 December 2004

Zim hunger crisis set to worsen

Zimbabwe produced just a third of the food it needs this season, the main opposition said on Wednesday, predicting the hunger crisis will worsen in the impoverished Southern African country. The opposition warned that half the nation’s 12,5-million population faces deepening hunger in coming months.

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/ 8 December 2004

Pebble-bed partner ‘not welcome in SA’

British Nuclear Fuels Limited is a ”partner from hell” and should not be involved in the proposed pebble-bed modular reactor, says environmental lobby group Earthlife Africa. ”This bankrupt British company, wasting billions of British taxpayers’ pounds, is not welcome in South Africa,” said spokesperson Mashile Phalane on Wednesday.

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/ 8 December 2004

Tintin’s eternal youth finally explained

Intrepid comic book reporter Tintin, who began his adventures 75 years ago, looks like a young teen because of a growth hormone deficiency and the effects of too many blows to the head, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study was written by Claude Cyr, a pediatrician at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, with help from two experts — his sons Antoine (five) and Louis-Olivier (seven).

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/ 8 December 2004

‘Do you want to marry me? Over’

A British sailor made waves in a round-the-world yachting competition on Tuesday when he used his radio to propose to his sweetheart, who is also a rival competitor. The famously rough seas at Cape Horn, on the southern tip of South America, did nothing to dampen the ardour of Graham Thompson (31) who asked 30-year-old girlfriend Laura Alexander the crucial question.

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/ 8 December 2004

May the Force be with him

Not so long ago in a galaxy 8km southeast of Philadelphia, Mike Degirolamo had a plan to build a large model of a vehicle from the Star Wars movies. But the authority in his sector sought to suppress it. The plan was to build a six metre by three-and-a-half metre model of a Jawa Sandcrawler, a relatively obscure icon from the original Star Wars film.

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/ 8 December 2004

No Constitutional Court hearing for Radio Pretoria

Radio Pretoria’s application to have its plea for renewal of its broadcasting licence heard in the Constitutional Court was refused on Wednesday. The court ruled that the dispute over the granting of a four-year licence to the community broadcaster is ”not yet ripe for hearing” because the full facts of the issue are not yet on record.

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/ 8 December 2004

Godzilla, the old-fashioned monster

The delicate, human side of Godzilla played by a real actor has drawn crowds for 50 years and shows that high-tech Hollywood doesn’t have all the answers, the creators of the Japanese monster’s latest instalment said on Wednesday. True to tradition, the film was shot almost entirely with a man dressed up as the fire-breathing giant reptile.