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/ 17 May 2004

JSE down, but off worst levels

The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was in the red, but well off the morning’s worst levels, just before midday on Monday, moving in line with the rand — one of the morning’s major drivers. While weaker world markets were also dragging on the downside, higher precious metals prices offset losses somewhat.

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/ 17 May 2004

Woman brutally raped with stone

A man was arrested on Saturday after he and three others allegedly forced a stone into a woman’s vagina in Germiston on Saturday, Johannesburg police reported on Sunday. Police spokesperson Sergeant Prudence Mvelase said the 20-year-old woman was on her way home when she was approached by four men next to a library in Alra Park around 3.30pm.

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/ 17 May 2004

Tahrs between rock and a hard place

Conservation officials have "reluctantly" resumed shooting Himalayan tahr on Table Mountain as part of a programme to reintroduce klipspringer and other indigenous buck there. This follows last month’s dismissal of a court challenge by the Friends of the Tahr organisation, which tried to stall efforts to get rid of the animals.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66449">’No ethical clearance’ for tahr killings</a>

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/ 17 May 2004

World Cup will add at least R21,4bn to SA’s GDP

Hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup will add at least R21,4-billion to South Africa’s gross domestic product and create 159 000 jobs, according to accounting firm Grant Thornton. In addition to the direct benefits from hosting the World Cup, there are very many other indirect benefits such as increased optimism and therefore willingness to invest in the future.

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/ 17 May 2004

Sweet empowerment deal for Illovo

South African sugar producer Illovo Sugar announced on Monday that it has entered into an agreement to sell its interests in the Gledhow sugar mill and refinery and the associated cane-growing estates to broad-based black economic empowerment company Grand Bridge for R335-million.

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/ 17 May 2004

Ruhr tries out razorblade radio

It’s just a small town in Germany but it boasts what the owners claim is the most modern supermarket in the world — a test bed of global retail technology. From the outside Metro’s Future store in Rheinberg — population 30,000 — looks like thousands of others: a barn in a car park. Yet inside it bristles with state-of-the-art technology.

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/ 17 May 2004

State assets: Where to now?

The announcement last week by the African National Congress that privatisation of parts of Eskom and Transnet will not go ahead, at least not in the foreseeable future, is a sensible change of heart and a subtle concession of defeat on a range of fronts. Yet it presents a new set of challenges.

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/ 17 May 2004

Bonds open stronger on World Cup news

South African bonds opened stronger in quiet early trade on Monday on the back of a firmer rand after South Africa on Saturday won the right to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. At 9am the benchmark six-year R153 bond was at 10,100% from 10,140% at Friday’s close, 10,24% at Thursday’s close, 10,120% at Wednesday’s close and 10,09% at Tuesday’s close.

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/ 17 May 2004

Barren fields belie Zimbabwe’s ‘bumper crop’

If the Ndlovu family had a television, they would learn that Zimbabwe has just harvested a maize crop so bountiful that there is no longer any need for emergency food aid. For the last week, government officials and economists have appeared nightly on the state broadcaster, ZBC, to marvel that a country recently stricken with hunger is now a breadbasket.