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/ 7 December 2004
It was last seen 42 years ago and was believed to be extinct. But the Bavarian short-eared mouse — a unique species of rodent that lives in a remote part of the Alps – has made a surprise comeback. A German zoologist last spotted the extremely rare mouse in 1962, after discovering the species in Bavaria.
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/ 7 December 2004
The men who hoaxed the BBC into believing Union Carbide’s parent company had apologised for the Bhopal disaster are the same people who gave talking Barbie dolls a man’s voice 11 years ago. In 1993 pranksters outraged toymaker Mattel by swapping the voice boxes of Barbie and GI Joe action figures and putting them back on shop shelves in a spot of gender-bending activism.
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/ 7 December 2004
A South African accused of being part of a plot to overthrow the Equatorial Guinea government earlier this year said on Tuesday he was relieved to be back home. ”South Africa is a fantastic country which you don’t realise how good it is till you leave it,” Mark Schmidt told the National Press Club in Pretoria. He was found not guilty and released on November 27 ”after months of hell” in detention in the West African country.
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/ 7 December 2004
The decision by the shareholders of Gold Fields to reject the Iamgold deal is welcome news to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the union said in a statement on Tuesday. "Such news couldn’t have come at a better time than this period of the year when, all around us, the message of goodwill is commonplace," the NUM said.
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/ 7 December 2004
The United Nations said on Tuesday it had established ”almost with certainty” that Rwandan soldiers had entered the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past two weeks. ”It has been established almost with certainty that Rwandan soldiers passed along this road” between Rutshuru and Kanyabayonga, two towns in eastern DRC, said Jacqueline Chenard, spokesperson for the United Nations mission in the DRC.
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/ 7 December 2004
Seventy-two percent of black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions in 2003 by value involved at least one of the top six BEE consortiums, according to Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa. He said the consortiums were ARM, Mvelaphanda, Shanduka (MCI), Safika, Kagiso and Tiso.
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/ 7 December 2004
Business confidence continued its slightly downward trend in November, the South African Chamber of Business index showed on Tuesday. Meanwhile, consumer confidence remained virtually unchanged at optimistic levels in the last quarter of this year, according to figures released on Tuesday.
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/ 7 December 2004
Harmony on Tuesday welcomed the rejection by Gold Fields’ shareholders of the mine’s proposed merger with Canada’s Iamgold and urged Gold Fields’ management to accept Harmony’s merger proposal. "Harmony believes that Gold Fields’ management should now abandon its ill-conceived defence," it said.
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/ 7 December 2004
The original members of the 1980s glam metal band Motley Crue made hard living and wild sexcapades a centerpiece of their music and their lives, selling millions of albums along the way. Now, after a five-year hiatus from performing together, the big-haired, leather-clad Crue members are eager to slip back into the music, if not the lifestyle depicted in hit rockers like Girls, Girls, Girls and Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room.
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/ 7 December 2004
Old men, their grey hair hidden by Sicily’s traditional coppola caps, chat idly one Friday morning in the cobbled square that hosts Corleone’s main church. Nearby, the Ruggirello brothers smile as they serve their customers pitch black espressos in small coffee cups from behind the counter of the Central Bar.