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/ 18 November 2004

Russian sweets-for-smokes plan fails

Young Russians are reluctant to be weaned off cigarettes, and a drive to persuade them hand over their packets of fags in return for sweets on Thursday fell flat, organisers admitted. Militants of the youth section of the pro-Kremlin United Russia armed themselves with sweets that they hoped to exchange for 3 000 packets of cigarettes.

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/ 18 November 2004

Eastern Cape dismissal drama plays on

A meeting to determine the fate of seven Eastern Cape Development Corporation directors — who were irregularly dismissed by the provincial minister for economic affairs, environment and tourism, Andre de Wet, in September — turned pear-shaped on Wednesday after De Wet effectively ruled against a High Court judgement instructing him to act "without capriciousness".

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/ 18 November 2004

SA soldier shot and killed in Bujumbura

A South African soldier taking part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Burundi has been shot dead, apparently by a colleague, the South African National Defence Force said on Thursday. Gunner Elvin Mopani Hendricks (24) died in a shooting incident on Wednesday night in a military camp in Bujumbura.

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/ 18 November 2004

Manuel looks to rand relief

A little less market confidence in the rand might be a ”welcome relief”, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Thursday. He told a Bureau for Economic Research conference in Somerset West that by making the correct decisions, South Africa had by 2001 been able to adopt an expansionary fiscal stance, in a context of renewed business confidence.

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/ 18 November 2004

CIA memo urges spies to support Bush

The new United States director of central intelligence, Porter Goss, told CIA staff this week their job was ”to support the Bush administration and its policies in our work”, stirring a new controversy over the future of the agency. The memorandum was attacked by critics as an attempt to suppress dissent, particularly over Iraq, and ensure the agency only produces assessments the White House wants to hear.

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/ 18 November 2004

How Zuma ‘clinched’ Absa account

Although considered a high risk, Deputy President Jacob Zuma was accepted as an Absa client because of his position, the Durban High Court heard on Thursday. Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was also considered to be a high risk and was accepted as a client because of his relationship with Zuma and because he would approve all Zuma’s investments as his adviser, Absa private bank’s John Dwyer testified.

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/ 18 November 2004

High-tech grandpas for elderly business owners

A team of tech-savvy but patient experts in their fifties and sixties has been set up to offer consultancy for Japan’s growing number of elderly small-business owners on their computer needs, the Japanese arm of IBM said on Thursday. The group includes 20 veterans of the information-technology industry between 52 and 67 years old.