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/ 11 November 2004
‘My hand," Yasser Arafat once said, "is the only hand that can sign a peace agreement with Israel." The assertion may sound vainglorious, but it was undoubtedly true. Israelis may yet come to rue the death of the 75-year-old Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) leader they refused to deal with for so long, and spent so much time demonising.
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/ 11 November 2004
The Klipdrift consumption in the Dorsbult has reached crisis proportions since Tuesday last week. But a message from Michael Moore — yes, he of <i>Fahrenheit 9/11</i> fame/notoriety (and, in the Dorsbult, hero worship; well, ok, among some of us) — has done his bit to cheer us up. He offers "17 reasons not to slit your wrists", a few of which follow …
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/ 10 November 2004
It is the duty of the state to provide opportunities to individuals from historically disadvantaged communities, so that all — okay, maybe not all, but at least their representatives and a few chosen others — shall share in the country’s gravy, writes Mike van Graan.
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/ 10 November 2004
The state produced a surprise witness in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial under way in the Durban High Court on Wednesday. A chief police inspector, Pierre Coret, from Mauritius, has taken the stand and is testifying about the two counts of corruption against Shaik with the aid of a French translator.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125282">What did Zuma do?</a>
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/ 10 November 2004
Cape Town has taken its next step in improving tourist services in the region with the launch of Cape Town Tourism’s new united corporate identity. Cape Town Tourism was previously the bureau responsible for the CBD, Waterfront and Atlantic Seaboard areas only.
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/ 10 November 2004
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was running normally after technical hitches on Tuesday saw delays, the JSE said on Wednesday. Due to a problem experienced with the JSE’s primary and back-up transatlantic communication links, trading on the equities market was halted at approximately 3.29pm on Tuesday.
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/ 10 November 2004
The Reserve Bank’s push for overambitious inflation targets is a deeply flawed policy at the heart of South Africa’s modest growth and chronic joblessness. Even if inflation dropped to zero and stayed there, the primary toxin — uncertainty — would remain. The economy’s fundamental structure ensures volatility and uncertainty. Policymakers should accept this and move on.
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/ 9 November 2004
Palestinian officials rushed to deny claims on Tuesday that veteran leader Yasser Arafat has lost his battle for life at a French hospital, as talks with Israel on his funeral were set to begin. Meanwhile, Egypt is offering to host a funeral service for Arafat in Cairo, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125272">Arafat not dead, despite rumours</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is still alive and efforts are being made by his French doctors to stop the haemorrhaging of his brain, Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat told reporters on Tuesday. A Palestinian Cabinet minister had earlier said that Arafat had passed away at the Percy military hospital on the outskirts of Paris.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125273">Agreement reached over Arafat funeral</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125224">Arafat in a deeper coma</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125192">Wife locks horns with leadership</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
United States army and marine units pushed through the centre of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Tuesday, fighting bands of guerrillas in the streets and conducting house-to-house searches. Iraq’s official Sunni Muslim political party quit the US-backed government on Tuesday in protest over the assault on Fallujah.
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/ 9 November 2004
The sale of Thintana’s remaining 15,1% in Telkom to an elite, government-aligned consortium is an example of an opportunity lost for broad-based empowerment and an unusually unfortunate example of crony capitalism, says shadow communications minister Dene Smuts.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&a=12&o=141486">Telkom welcomes BEE partner</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
Researchers working off coastal Georgia have discovered what could be three new species of bottom-dwelling creatures known as sea squirts. The diminutive creatures — also known as tunicates — were recently found at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, a reef 28km east of Georgia’s Sapelo Island.
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/ 9 November 2004
Considering that short-term insurers spend upwards of R21-billion in claims a year and R8-billion in settling motor claims alone, the scope for genuine grassroots black economic empowerment (BEE) is vast, according to Bruce Campbell, MD of Mutual & Federal.
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/ 9 November 2004
The condition of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat deteriorated overnight and he is now in a deeper coma, the spokesperson for the French army medical service said on Tuesday. A delegation of four top Palestinians was set to visit Arafat in his Paris hospital on Tuesday, overriding objections from his wife, Suha.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125192">Wife locks horns with leadership</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
South African IT entrepreneur and the world’s first "Afronaut" Mark Shuttleworth takes ten tough ones from the <i>M&G Online</i>.
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/ 9 November 2004
Following Monday’s announcement that a black economic empowerment (BEE) consortium had concluded an agreement to acquire the remaining 15,1% interest held by Thintana Communications in Telkom, the South African telecommunications giant on Tuesday said it welcomed the new strategic shareholder.
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/ 9 November 2004
Palestinian leaders arrived in France on Monday night in an attempt to establish the true state of Yasser Arafat’s health, despite the objections of his wife, who has accused them of planning to "bury him alive". But doctors at the Percy military hospital in Paris appeared to pre-empt the leadership’s plans to see Arafat by announcing that he was unfit to receive visitors.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125158">’They are trying to bury Arafat alive'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125119">Leaders’ visit adds to confusion</a>
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/ 9 November 2004
Broadcasters in Africa, often due to their reach, are the genuine mass media — and potentially hold huge influence politically and culturally. Want to know whether your national broadcaster is a genuine "public" broadcaster? Apply this simple test set out by Professor Tawana Kupe.
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/ 9 November 2004
The City of Johannesburg has been presented with an innovative programme to address child poverty and early childhood development while at the same time regenerating local economies by enabling poor communities to earn money. The Child Nutrition Programme can do more than just feed children. It can change communities.
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/ 9 November 2004
Both military procurement agency Armscor and the defence industry offsets concluded in terms of the government’s R57-billion arms deal are coming in for sustained flak from a surprising quarter: troubled defence parastatal Denel. Tight budgets, international competition and internal inefficiencies are pushing the conglomerate deeper into the red.
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/ 8 November 2004
Senegal-based internet and mobile data services operator Manobi pipped six other information and communications technology (ICT) organisations from around Africa to scoop the overall organisational accolade at the African ICT Achievers
Awards 2004 on Saturday night.
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/ 8 November 2004
A veteran South African detective on Monday told how his bid to have Vito Palazzolo charged with corruption was turned down by the Western Cape’s director of prosecutions. "I thought I had a case," said Leonard Knipe, who was national head of serious and violent crime before he retired from the police.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125147">Stressed policeman unfit to testify</a>
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/ 8 November 2004
Former Scorpions head Bulelani Ngcuka, who has been appointed executive chairperson of black economic empowerment company Amabubesi Investments, is to become actively involved in the private security industry. Ngcuka will play an active role in the investigations arm of Stallion Security.
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/ 8 November 2004
Stressed former police officer Abraham Smith is unfit to give evidence at the Palazzolo inquiry, a clinical psychologist said on Monday. Psychologist Petrus Roux was called to testify at the hearing in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court after Smith broke down in the stand last week and was admitted to a clinic.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125069">Italian judge criticises SA magistrate</a>
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/ 8 November 2004
South African global pulp and paper producer Sappi on Monday reported headline earnings per share of 26 United States cents for the quarter ended September 30, from 18 cents in the June quarter. This brought headline earnings per share for the year ended September 30 to 45 US cents.
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/ 8 November 2004
So I dragged my bags out of the aeroplane at Heathrow and, having run the gamut of the slit-eyed customs and immigration officials, who these days comprise all sexes, all tendencies, and all races, which is no simple trick I can assure you, I got on the very civilised express train and found myself at the heart of Paddington station. And there I met a man called Thomas Jones with whom I had a most refreshing conversation …
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/ 5 November 2004
Retail clothing group Truworths has rejected as false and misleading claims made by members of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) that it does not support local procurement and manufacturing. Truworths revealed that it is one of the biggest supporters of the country’s clothing and textile sector.
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/ 5 November 2004
A hasty imposition or deployment of a peacekeeping force to war-ravaged Somalia could ignite renewed conflict, Alejandro Bendana, team leader of the European Union-backed Somalia Strategic Demilitarisation Unit, warned on Thursday. "This is not Iraq," Bendana told journalists at the start of a two-day Somalia planning meeting.
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/ 5 November 2004
The chairperson of the African Union, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, is "very concerned" about an outbreak of fighting in Côte d’Ivoire and plans to host a crisis meeting of regional leaders on Saturday, his spokesperson said. "The president is very concerned about the situation," the spokesperson said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=124978">Warplanes bomb Côte d’Ivoire city</a>
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/ 5 November 2004
South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, says small and medium businesses should be excluded from costly — and bureaucratic — burdens imposed by the Employment Equity Act. Charges of alleged employment-equity violations against eight KwaZulu-Natal clothing companies will cost thousands of jobs, the DA said.
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/ 5 November 2004
President Thabo Mbeki and sections of the African National Congress this week repeatedly lashed out at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu),
labelling its trip to Zimbabwe last week "adventurism". But Cosatu and the South African Communist Party are refusing to buckle, insisting that there is space for a different tactical approach.
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/ 5 November 2004
Yasser Arafat was close to death in a French hospital on Thursday night after repeatedly losing consciousness, but doctors denied reports that he was already dead. The Percy military hospital, near Paris, said Arafat was moved to the intensive care unit after his still undiagnosed condition deteriorated critically.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125024">Who will succeed Arafat?</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125008&t=1">Palestinians prepare to grieve</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=124991">Arafat ‘will not recover’ </a>