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/ 5 November 2004

More stagger than swagger for galacticos

Galacticos? Junk Galacticos? Mediaticos? At the moment the subdivisions of stardom at Real Madrid are blurring to the point of irrelevance before the realisation that points, not prices, win prizes. So it was numbers, rather than names, that occupied Real as they prepared for the visit of La Liga newcomers Getafe on Sunday.

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/ 4 November 2004

Palestinians prepare to grieve

As Yasser Arafat lay brain dead in a Paris hospital on Thursday, Palestinians in the town that he left less than a week ago for life-saving treatment were already preparing to mourn their veteran leader. Flags were flying half-mast over Arafat’s headquarters compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah in tribute to the United Arab Emirates’ founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, who died earlier this week.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=124991">Arafat ‘will not recover'</a>

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/ 4 November 2004

Get legal, minister tells foreigners

The minister of home affairs made an impassioned plea on Thursday for foreigners to apply for the necessary permits to be in the country legally. In a personal statement to the South African Human Rights Commission hearings on xenophobia, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said: ”There are many different permits they can apply for in South Africa.”

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/ 4 November 2004

‘Tis the season to be jolly

At these Winter Games, there are no strenuous slaloms or figure-eights. But if you can’t shimmy up a chimney or wrap a Christmas gift, forget about competing. The annual Santa Winter Olympics kick off this month with about 50 Santas from across Europe testing their holiday mettle in Sweden’s cold, northern reaches.

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/ 4 November 2004

Xstrata shuts SA vanadium operation

Anglo-Swiss mining group Xstrata on Thursday announced the permanent closure of Xstrata Alloys’ Vantech vanadium operation in South Africa, resulting in a write-down of R63,2-million. ”The decision to close Vantech follows a thorough assessment of the operation’s future prospects,” Xstrata said in a statement.

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/ 4 November 2004

British embassy in Harare accused of racism

State media said on Thursday that 40 Zimbabwean employees of the British embassy are engaged in a work slowdown to protest pay conditions and alleged racism. Embassy spokesperson Gillian Dare denied the report carried by state radio and the government news agency. ”We strongly deny any charge of racism,” she said.