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/ 21 October 2004
Steel producer Ispat Iscor on Thursday reported a 15% increase in operating profit for the September quarter to R2,235-billion, up from R1,945-billion in the June quarter. September headline earnings were R1,575-billion, up R882-million from the June quarter.
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/ 21 October 2004
Austrian police evacuated hundreds of people from Linz’s main train station on Thursday after finding a large, unexploded World War II bomb — the second such discovery in two weeks, authorities said. The bomb was found at about 8.30am near the newly opened station in Linz, about 200km west of Vienna.
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/ 21 October 2004
International ratings agency Fitch Ratings on Thursday revised the outlook on South Africa’s sovereign ratings to positive from stable. Nico Kelder, economist at Efficient Research, said: "It is obviously positive news for South Africa. But the next serious rating we need is an investment grade rating."
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/ 21 October 2004
Tourism in northern KwaZulu-Natal will be boosted by a new airport, able to accommodate modern jet liners, the province’s tourism minister said on Thursday. The existing airstrip at Mkuzi, a small town near St Lucia, would be upgraded into a regional airport, which would provide almost instant access to the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, said Narend Singh.
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/ 21 October 2004
Forty years after independence, Zambians are poorer, their country having missed an opportunity to boost its economy with its rich copper reserves. When the southern African country broke free from British colonial rule in 1964, its economy was on par with that of South Korea and ranked second to South Africa in the region.
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/ 21 October 2004
Crude oil prices moved within range of again on Thursday, a day after briefly surpassing the mark over a fall in United States distillate fuels stocks that raised fears of shortages as the northern-hemisphere winter approaches. US distillate stocks fell for a fifth straight week, the US Department of Energy said on Wednesday.
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/ 21 October 2004
Sudan charged on Thursday that it is being harassed by the United Nations over the Darfur crisis because the world body is powerless to change the situation in Iraq or the Palestinian territories. ”The UN has lost its sense of direction in applying the international charter,” Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters.
AU to bolster Sudan peacekeeping
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/ 21 October 2004
More than a third of Turkish women believe they deserve to be beaten if they argue with their husbands, deny them sex or burn the meal. The poll was conducted among 8 075 married women by Ankara’s Hacettepe University and was funded by the European Union and the Turkish government.
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/ 21 October 2004
The Victoria Falls bridge, one of Zimbabwe’s most famous landmarks, is old and possibly dangerous, railway officials said on Thursday. The bridge, which opened in 1905, was designed to last 100 years. Now officials say it carries 170% more weight than it was designed to carry 100 years ago, despite its age.
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/ 21 October 2004
Health and beauty retailer New Clicks Holdings is confident that its model for including pharmacy dispensaries and related health services across its Clicks chain of stores will prove profitable, even if the current regulations fixing dispensing fees and establishing single exit prices for medicines prove to be permanent.