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/ 8 December 2005

House price growth still declining

Nominal house price growth declined further to 14,7% year-on-year in November 2005, according to the latest Absa House Price Index. This was the lowest year-on-year growth since mid-2002 and brought the average house price in the middle segment of the market to about R727 700 in November this year.

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/ 8 December 2005

Iraqi women left to rot in palace-turned-jail

Dozens of women are rotting away, imprisoned in a former royal palace without trial or sentence, penned up in cramped cells over charges of murder, kidnap and the new Iraq nasty: terrorism. The Queen Alia palace in Baghdad, once home to the mother of King Faisal and formerly replete with gold panelling, was rebranded into a women’s prison after the fall of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958.

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/ 8 December 2005

Syria ready to reopen Israel peace talks

Syria is engaged in clandestine talks about reopening peace negotiations with Israel in an attempt to head off United Nations sanctions next week over its alleged role in the February assassination of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister. Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, is being urged by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to restart bilateral talks with Israel that collapsed in 2000.

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/ 8 December 2005

Unrepentant Saddam turns defence into attack

If found guilty, he could face the gallows. But since the start of his trial, deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has shown indifference for his victims, aggression to his judges and no regret for his more than two decades in power. Saddam has yet to reveal any hint of weakness in the face of the graphic and sometimes gruesome testimony from witnesses who stood just metres away from him.