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/ 19 October 2004

Democrats seek Sex and the City women

If George Bush believes that the evangelists who did not vote in 2000 could win him this year’s election, for John Kerry the Sex and the City women could carry him into the White House. About 22-million single women, whose group title comes from the title of the successful television show, did not vote in the 2000 election.

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/ 19 October 2004

Exploitation on tap

No one could have accused the British Conservative government of breaking its promise to bring back Victorian values. When, in 1992, it permitted private water companies to install pre-paid meters in Birmingham, the people who couldn’t afford to flush their toilets started defecating into pots, which they then emptied out of the windows of their tower blocks. It made one quite nostalgic.

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/ 19 October 2004

Tough love at Everest

When both the owner and caretaker gave up on Everest, an 11-storey flat block in Johannesburg’s notorious Hillbrow, the job of building manager did not look attractive. In 1999 the building, at the corner of Goldreich and Edith Cavell streets, was well on its way to becoming a slum. But for grandmother Maureen Singh, Everest was an opportunity.

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/ 19 October 2004

Missing the mark

A year after the Cabinet approved an Aids treatment plan progress is patchy, with seven of the nine provinces lagging behind in meeting patient targets. Provinces also underspent their conditional Aids budgets in the first quarter of this financial year. This month the Department of Health said about 12 000 patients are on anti-retroviral treatment. The M&G‘s calculations show the figure is closer to 14 000.

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/ 19 October 2004

Harmony takeover is bad news, say unions

Harmony’s planned buy-out of Gold Fields would not benefit miners or South Africa, according to trade union Solidarity and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Monday. NUM is concerned about the way in which the hostile bid is being handled.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=123933">Gold Fields fights Harmony takeover</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=123889">Harmony wants to be number one </a>

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/ 19 October 2004

Shack dwellers settle on school sports field

Staff and parents from a primary school in East London are up in arms after a housing committee apparently instructed a group of shack dwellers to relocate to the school’s sports field. Nompumelelo Primary School principal Nokuzola Ndabambi said trenches had been dug in the sports field and poles had been placed in the soil so that shacks could be built.

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/ 19 October 2004

Putin backs Bush victory

Vladimir Putin waded into the United States’ election campaign in support of George Bush on Monday, declaring that if the president lost, it would lead to the ”spread of terrorism” around the world. The endorsement was a significant boost for Bush who has been under fire from John Kerry for failing to maintain international support for the US ”war on terror”.

  • Democrats seek Sex and the City women
  • ‘They can say anything to get elected’
  • Africa awaits outcome of US polls
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    / 19 October 2004

    Frozen assets and blue chips

    When Philip Brocklehurst went to Antarctica, he brought back his own toes as a souvenir. In a jar. That was in the early days of Antarctic tourism (1908 as part of Ernest Shackleton’s unsuccessful attempt on the Pole). Were he to have made the trip with us in 2004, on board MS Explorer II, he’d probably have picked up a proper souvenir such as a Swarovski crystal frog — from one of the ship’s two souvenir shops.

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    / 19 October 2004

    Lebo Diale

    <b>Manager: Environmental Education, North West Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Tourism</b>

    Lebo’s dream is that all the young people in North West province will grow into ardent conservationists. She develops environmental education programmes for the schools in her province and she also teaches communities to improve their lives by using their local resources in sustainable ways.

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    / 19 October 2004

    Janis O’Grady

    <b>Manager: KwaZulu-Natal Conservation Leadership Group, a working group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust</b>

    Do your children know which endangered species occur in your area? Janis’s job is to ensure that they do. She teaches rural children about their environment and the fauna it supports.