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/ 5 February 2005
Last week’s Sunday Times ran an excellent piece which told the story of how some fine descriptive writing by the Wits University academic, Lindsay Bremner, appeared almost verbatim in a Pamela Jooste novel. Reading the story, my first reaction was one of heartfelt pity for poor Darrel Bristow-Bovey, toppled so summarily from his hard-earned status as South Africa’s leading-edge plagiarist.
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/ 5 February 2005
Postmen will no longer deliver the mail on foot to a residential street in Britain due to fear of being savaged by a growling dog. Over the past few months, the roaming collie has terrorised postmen on Manor Crescent in Swindon, in the south of England, preventing them at times from delivering letters and parcels completely.
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/ 5 February 2005
Oscar Pistorius, the sensational schoolboy sprinter, broke his world 200m record for double below-the-knee amputees in his first major race against able-bodied athletes at the opening Absa Series meeting in Potchefstroom on Friday night. The matriculant from Pretoria Boys’ High surged to 21,83 seconds in ideal conditions.
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/ 5 February 2005
Whenever I travel — and when in polite society — I use a poached-eggs index to ascertain the overall quality of the place — by scoring the state in which the egg arrives at my table. My private, and more accurate, measure though, is that of the American oil baron JD Rockefeller, who once said: "Before choosing your hotel, order a martini. Then you’ll know about the quality of the establishment."
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/ 5 February 2005
Rescuers on Friday found the first pieces of wreckage of a plane carrying 104 passengers that crashed in a snowstorm near the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday. Afghan and international troops spent Friday scouring the mountains near Kabul for signs of the Boeing 737-200.
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/ 5 February 2005
Newly discovered tapes have revealed how the energy corporation Enron shut down at least one power plant on false pretences, deliberately aggravating California’s crippling 2001 blackouts with the aim of raising prices. The tapes also show that Enron manipulated energy markets in Canada.
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/ 5 February 2005
The United States unexpectedly poured cold water on Friday over British hopes for a bold Group of Seven initiative to increase aid flows to the world’s poorest countries. Germany, however, said it will propose slapping a Europe-wide tax on airline fuel as a way to finance increased help for the developing world.
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/ 5 February 2005
When his captors threatened to throw Dhruv Karki into the flashing white swirls of the river Seti, the student activist thought his life was over. Blindfolded and having been beaten with a rifle butt over the past four hours in an army camp in western Nepal, Dhruv was mentally and physically exhausted.
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/ 5 February 2005
Bush Bucks woes continued after losing 4-2 to Wits University in a Premier Soccer League match played at the Bidvest Stadium on Friday night. Wits’ Jonathan Solomons intended cross resulted in the home side’s first goal in the 14th minute. Sydney Nkalanga added Wits’ second seven minutes later.
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/ 5 February 2005
Graeme Smith registered his maiden limited-overs international century to lead South Africa to a series-levelling three-wicket win over England in the third Standard Bank one-day cricket match at Sahara Oval St George’s on Friday. It was a terrific effort by the South Africans after some poor results this summer.