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/ 27 November 2004

Memo deepens Thatcher link to coup

The Obiang regime in Equatorial Guinea on Friday jailed 11 foreign mercenaries for up to 34 years, as documents surfaced further implicating the former British prime minister’s son, Mark Thatcher, in a British-led coup attempt which has caused international embarrassment.
<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=126212">SA mercenary gets 34 years</a>
<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=126082">’I feel like a corpse in a river'</a>

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/ 27 November 2004

White and the Boks look to 2007

South Africa have endured a tough time on their current tour but coach Jake White believes the experience gained by his young squad could pay dividends come the time of the 2007 World Cup in France. Back-to-back defeats by Ireland and England have shattered the Tri-Nations champions.

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/ 27 November 2004

A country where the Big Man rules

England Captain Michael Vaughan did not have to wait long for a reminder of why they hesitated so long before travelling to Zimbabwe. Just around the corner from their five-star downtown hotel, on a wall on Robert Mugabe Avenue, someone has scrawled ”England go home, shame on England.” And ”England go back”.

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/ 26 November 2004

DRC soldier killed by Rwandan rebels

A Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) soldier has been killed in the east of the vast central African country in an attack by Rwandan rebels, a DRC army officer told reporters on Friday. The Democratic attack was near Walungu, around 80km southwest of Bukavu, according too a DRC offiver, and the soldier was killed when rebels cut off his arm.

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/ 26 November 2004

SA mercenary gets 34 years

South African Nick du Toit was sentenced on Friday by a court in Equatorial Guinea to 34 years in jail and exiled opposition leader Severo Moto to 64 years for a plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Du Toit, who has been held in prison in Equatorial Guinea since his arrest in the central African country in February, was in court to hear the verdict, while Moto was tried in absentia.

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/ 26 November 2004

Chinese mine fire toll rises to 68

The confirmed death toll from a fire at an iron-ore mine complex in northern China rose to 68 on Friday as rescuers hauled three more bodies from the shafts, state media reported. The fire started last Saturday at a private mine at Shahe city in Hebei province and quickly spread to four other mines nearby, where 119 miners were working.

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/ 26 November 2004

And the show goes on

Off-key: They sing for presidents. They dine with ambassadors. But our self-appointed opera royalty do suffer a bad review now and then. Even if they have to go all the way to London to get it, observes Mike van Graan.