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/ 12 February 2004

Is South Africa going the Zimbabwean way?

The complaint by opposition parties that South Africa is fast becoming a one-party state is stubbornly not going away, and is set to dominate the forthcoming election.
In this view, the African National Congress is becoming too powerful and is likely to subvert South Africa’s democracy, running the country into the ground in the process. Some people — tongue in cheek — claim this has already happened.

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/ 12 February 2004

‘Sex, a lot of sex, Nazis, more Nazis’

He is one of Germany’s hottest young novelists. And, until last week, few in Germany’s literary world doubted that Thor Kunkel’s latest novel, Final Stage, was going to be anything but a rip-roaring success. The novel had all the right ingredients — sex, a lot of sex, Nazis, more Nazis, and a spectacular romantic finale.

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/ 12 February 2004

ANC wins by-election in Gugs

The African National Congress in the Western Cape has won Wednesday’s ward 42 by-election in Guguletu with an 86% majority. The Independent Electoral Commission spokesperson, Courtney Sampson, confirmed the result on Thursday morning. The only other party that contested the poll was the Pan Africanist Congress.

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/ 12 February 2004

Why was €1-million a month sent to Arafat’s wife?

French public prosecutors said on Wednesday they had opened a money-laundering inquiry into suspect transfers totalling about â,¬9-million (about R78-million) into Paris bank accounts held by the wife of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The Bank of France and an anti-laundering agency noticed payments of about â,¬1-million a month entering Suha Arafat’s accounts.

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/ 12 February 2004

24 hours in Iraq: 102 dead

The United States military in Iraq on Wednesday night sought to blame al-Qaeda loyalists and foreign militants for a series of recent suicide bombings, including two attacks that killed more than 100 Iraqis in 24 hours. Commanders released details of a 17-page letter they claim was written by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian fugitive allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden.

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/ 12 February 2004

$66-billion bid for troubled empire

Walt Disney was on Wednesday fighting for survival after the United States’s biggest cable television company, Comcast, laid siege to the magic kingdom with a -billion bid. The Disney empire, which enjoyed a renaissance in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has foundered for the past five years, leading to persistent speculation that it could be subject to a bid.

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/ 12 February 2004

Bill for nuptials of tycoon’s sons: a cool £50-million

It is a tale of two weddings and a billionaire. In one of India’s poorest states, Uttar Pradesh, a six-day celebration estimated to cost more than £50-million (about R626-million), started this week for the nuptials of two sons of one of India’s wealthiest men. The venue is a huge site dominated by a floodlit lake and complete with a London orchestra and a replica of the White House.