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/ 11 February 2004

The threads that bind

A big black hand gently directs a needle with yellow cotton from a sewing machine into blue fabric to create an embroidered picture of a rural village. It will take an hour for this 29-year-old Ghanaian to complete the design on this skirt, which he hopes will be worn by a young South African woman. He is one of about 50 West African designers in the Jo’burg’s inner city’s fashion district.

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/ 11 February 2004

Race a defining issue in the upcoming election

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The announcement on Monday that South Africa will go to the polls on April 14 for its third democratic election has opened the way for political parties to start campaigning in earnest. But, analysts are already predicting that the ruling African National Congress will be returned to power with a sweeping majority.

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/ 11 February 2004

Urgent message to those on Atkins diet

His books continue to drive the eating habits of millions of people across the world who are desperate to find a reliable way of losing weight. But Robert Atkins, pioneer of the controversial diet which bears his name, was clinically obese at the time of his death, a leaked medical report revealed on Tuesday.

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/ 11 February 2004

‘We wait for peace. We wait for war’

At the Liberty beauty salon in Port-au-Prince, two hairdressers sit in the hope that the electricity will soon return. ”We wait for electricity. We wait for water. We wait for peace. We wait for war,” says one. Worried that she has said too much, she refuses to give her name, fearing the prescience of her throwaway remark and the implications that could come with it.

  • Bloody rebel uprising spreads in Haiti
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    / 11 February 2004

    Tourism’s teen team

    "Apart from the snakes, it was great," Mpho Padi said, looking reflective. At 18 life seems huge. Especially when you’ve just had your first real contact with the bush … and the abject poverty of rural Limpopo. A group of teenagers were given a glimpse of what the tourism game is all about.

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    / 11 February 2004

    The master tracker

    You’d expect Louis Liebenberg to be even more of a household name in South Africa than Laurens van der Post. He has spent far more time with the San. Even more important, he has devised a revolutionary system by which they and other illiterate trackers can record field data on a hand-held computer.