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/ 22 October 2004

Bacteria scare at top Dutch hotel

Amsterdam’s luxurious Amstel hotel — a favorite with visiting rock stars and dignitaries — was evacuated after a dangerous bacteria was detected in the water, the hotel said Friday. A routine health inspection on Thursday uncovered the bacteria that causes legionnaires’ disease, the hotel said in a statement.

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/ 22 October 2004

Nuance gets its ‘but’ kicked

Whoever wins the United States election, nuance has become a no-no this year, bludgeoned by campaign attack ads and each side’s distortion of the other’s positions. Nuance, a trait most often associated with John Kerry and rarely with President George Bush, now is taken to mean flip-flop, wishy-washiness or appeasement.

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/ 22 October 2004

Rand Water warns of drought to come

Below-normal rainfall is likely until February next year, Rand Water said on Friday. It said the Vaal Dam is 37% full. Under normal conditions, a 37% water level would not be a problem. The South African Weather Service, however, has warned that rainfall will be below average over the next four months.

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/ 22 October 2004

A ray of hope in Kenya’s fight against graft

Kenya pulled off what some might view as an unexpected feat this week by improving its standing in Transparency International’s annual corruption perceptions index. Every year, the Berlin-based NGO ranks several countries according to the levels of corruption that are perceived to exist in their public sectors.

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/ 22 October 2004

Mother courage

<b>NOT QUITE THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK:</b> What a weird movie. <i>The Forgotten</i> starts out as a heartbreaking melodrama, then morphs into an FBI-conspiracy/cop thriller, becomes an outsiders-on-the-run road movie, before suddenly going all <i>X-Files</i>, writes Shaun de Waal.