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/ 1 November 2004

Do make me over

Every time I flip channels and come across the American television programme Extreme Makeover, I am astounded. Men and women write in to the show, requesting extensive surgical intervention to help change their lives for the better. One family that submitted a request was introduced as ”the Bushes”. Their son, a former alcoholic, philanderer and military service vagabond, was in need of an Extreme Makeover.

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/ 1 November 2004

Market blast rocks Tel Aviv

At least four people were killed and 30 others wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in an open-air market in the Israeli commercial capital, Tel Aviv, on Monday, police said. It was the first such attack in Israel since twin suicide bus bombings in the southern city of Beesheva on August 31 that killed 15 people.

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/ 1 November 2004

FNB makeover ‘all about growth’

First National Bank (FNB) — one of the country’s so-called "big four" banks and a wholly-owned subsidiary of FirstRand — has quietly been undergoing a makeover. The group is realigning its retail and corporate divisions in a move that newly appointed CEO Michael Jordaan says is aimed primarily at growth.

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/ 1 November 2004

Medical bank to be integrated into Absa

The Absa group’s separately branded specialist bank, MLS Bank, will be integrated into the Absa brand over the course of the next few months, in line with the group’s powerful single-brand strategy. The group said on Monday that the niche market of medical professionals currently serviced by MLS will continue to receive specialist attention.

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/ 1 November 2004

Police checkmate chess grandmaster

On the rugby field, certainly. On the football pitch, probably. But on Sunday, the usually genteel game of chess was embroiled in its own version of the soup scandal when a grandmaster was arrested at the closing ceremony of the chess olympiad for allegedly headbutting a policeman.

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/ 1 November 2004

Arafat’s potential successors take control

Yasser Arafat’s grip on power appeared to be slipping on Sunday after his subordinates assumed control of the major Palestinian organisations at the weekend and some politicians predicted that his domination was at an end. The leaderships of the major Palestinian organisations met at the weekend to agree a transfer of powers.