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/ 6 September 2004
South Africa’s Justice and Constitutional Development Ministry has given permission to Equatorial Guinea’s authorities to question Mark Thatcher on his alleged role in a coup plot in that country, a ministry spokesperson said on Monday. The spokesperson added that there has been no discussion of extradition.
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/ 6 September 2004
An Italian couple undergoing fertility treatment gave birth to twins of colour following a mishap at a fertility clinic, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said on Sunday. According to the daily, the eggs and sperm of two couples of different races receiving fertility treatment were mistakenly switched.
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/ 6 September 2004
In a harrowing feat high over the Utah desert on Wednesday, two helicopter stunt pilots will try to snatch a floating space capsule that holds ”a piece of the sun” and bring it safely down. Their biggest fear: what if they flub it on live television? And that’s entirely possible. The pilots rate it eight or nine on a difficulty scale of 10.
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/ 6 September 2004
Loyal fans of British author JK Rowling who managed to crack a code on Rowling’s official website have been rewarded with a sneak preview of the eagerly awaited sixth book in the Harry Potter series, according to reports on Monday. The book is entitled Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
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/ 6 September 2004
A statement posted on an Islamist website, purportedly from the captors of two French journalists in Iraq, gave France 48 hours on Monday to accept three new conditions — agreeing to a recent truce offer by Osama bin Laden, payment of -million ransom and a pledge not to get involved in Iraq.
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/ 6 September 2004
An Israeli military satellite fell into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday after a botched launched from southern Israel, military officials said. Analysts said the satellite was designed to help expand Israel’s coverage of its more distant enemies, particularly Iran. The failure of the launch is seen as a major setback for the military.
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/ 6 September 2004
The trial of four high-ranking officers in Rwanda’s army during the 1994 genocide resumed on Monday before the United Nations tribunal trying the suspected main perpetrators of the slaughter. Dubbed ”the military trial”, it is seen as one of the most important before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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/ 6 September 2004
Employers can no longer retrench workers to make way for better-skilled employees without making adequate training opportunities available, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said on Monday. On Friday, a judge found that South African Breweries (SAB) had wrongly dismissed 115 Fawu members in 2001.
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/ 6 September 2004
Eastern Cape finance minister Enoch Godongwana was fired on Monday, Premier Nosimo Balindlela’s office said. ”Both the suspension of the finance superintendent general, Monde Tom, and Godongwana’s dismissal come after a probe into financial irregularities in that department,” a spokesperson said.
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/ 6 September 2004
A massive car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Fallujah on Monday, killing seven United States marines and wounding several others, a US military official said. The strength of the blast sent the engine from the vehicle used in the bombing flying ”a good distance” from the site, said the official.