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/ 12 December 2003

We wish you a bushy Christmas

Pollution is making British Christmas trees bushier, and thus more desirable to the traditional customer, according to a study published in this week’s New Scientist. The traditional layered tree, shaped like a wedding cake, is slowly giving way to one that is squat and bushy, owing to extra nitrogen in the air.

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/ 12 December 2003

T-shirt company wins latest court battle

The satirical Cape Town T-shirt company Laugh It Off (LIO) has won the latest round of its court battle with multinational beer giant SABMiller. Cape High Court Judge Roger Cleaver on Friday rejected with costs a bid by SABMIller to force LIO to put up R350 000 in security ahead of an appeal court case expected to be heard in 2004.

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/ 12 December 2003

Ebola outbreak stabilising

The Health Ministry of the Republic of Congo reported on Thursday that the current ebola outbreak in the country’s northwestern Cuvette Ouest Department is stabilising, with 29 deaths among 42 registered cases to date. Since December 2 no further deaths had been registered in the two worst-affected villages.

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/ 12 December 2003

Africa wants more than IT promises

Africa, the instigator of the world’s first information technology summit, wanted rich countries to put their money where their mouths are to develop its nascent technology, but its delegates were leaving the three-day meeting on Friday with only vague promises.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=38626">WSIS special report</a>

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/ 12 December 2003

Teenage wildlife

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Clark contests mainstream Hollywood’s view of the world, where you can have as much sex and violence as you like as long as it’s packaged with a join-the-dots moral lesson, writes Shaun de Waal of Ken Park.

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/ 12 December 2003

A letter to Santa

”Dear Santa, We received your encrypted fax asking for payment in exchange for gifts of our choice as the arts sector. We’ve referred the matter to the National Arts Council, and they’ve promised to process the payment as soon as they have verified your existence”, reads Mike van Graan.