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/ 16 September 2004
South African economists have different opinions on the impact of Thursday’s public-sector strike on the economy overall. T-Sec economist Mike Schussler contends that the South African public-sector wage bill is relatively too high for a developing country, and this is a major problem.
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/ 16 September 2004
Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band The Ramones, has died. He was 55. Ramone died in his sleep on Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, his publicist said. He had battled prostate cancer for five years, and was hospitalised in June at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.
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/ 16 September 2004
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, declared explicitly for the first time on Wednesday night that the United States-led war on Iraq was illegal. Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council or in accordance with the UN’s founding charter.
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/ 16 September 2004
An American bounty hunter who illegally detained and tortured Afghan prisoners was on Wednesday jailed for 10 years in Kabul. ”We should have let the Taliban kill them all,” yelled Jonathan ‘Jack’ Idema, a former member of the United States special forces, as he was taken off to serve his sentence in the Kabul jail where he had been held since his arrest on July 5.
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/ 16 September 2004
This week’s strike by public servants revealed a terrain reshaped since the last action in 1999. For one, the level of public sympathy with strikers was notable — people want decent public services because they are making the connection between poor service and poorly paid civil servants.
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/ 16 September 2004
Voluntary testing or mandatory testing? That is the question Aids activists and government officials are grappling with in Zambia, where about one million people have already died in the pandemic since the late 1980s. As a draft national Aids policy is still under discussion, lawmakers have yet to finalise their position on the matter of testing.
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/ 16 September 2004
West Indies captain Brian Lara believes Bangladesh are making improvements as a cricketing nation, despite another heavy defeat at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday in the ICC Champions Trophy. Bangladesh lost to the West Indies by 138 runs just days after another mauling by South Africa in the group stages of the competition.
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/ 16 September 2004
World champion Valentino Rossi, back in Japan for the first time since he switched teams to Yamaha, is looking to move closer to his fourth straight world title at this Sunday’s Pacific Grand Prix in Motegi and give the Japanese constructors their first championship in 12 years.
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/ 16 September 2004
Undulating greens that rival famed Augusta National Golf Club will provide a test of nerves for European and United States golfers trying to tame a ”Monster” here at the Ryder Cup. Oakland Hills Country Club, a 11 323-metre Donald Ross-designed course opened in 1918, has hosted six US Opens, including the 1951 event where winner Ben Hogan said, ”I’m glad I brought this course, this monster, to its knees.”