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/ 6 November 2006
Leonid Hambro, a concert pianist who served as Victor Borge’s comedic sidekick during a decade-long collaboration and was also known for his ability to commit to memory a huge repertoire, has died. He was 86. Hambro died at his Manhattan home on October 23 of complications from a fall, his wife, Barbara Hambro, said.
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/ 6 November 2006
According to the Absa house-price index, nominal house price growth of 12,7% year-on-year was recorded in October this year, compared with a revised growth rate of 13,5% in September. The bank’s researchers said this brought the average price of a house in the middle segment of the market to R830 700 in October.
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/ 6 November 2006
William Styron, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose explorations of the darkest corners of the human mind and experience were charged by his own near-suicidal demons, died on November 1 in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was 81. Styron’s daughter, Alexandra, said the author died of pneumonia.
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/ 6 November 2006
Deposed Bakwena ba Mogopa regent Emmanuel Segwagwa Mamogale will reassume his position at the helm of the platinum-rich tribe after successfully challenging last year’s decision by North West Premier Edna Molewa to relieve him of his duties. Motlalepule Mathibedi, who had replaced Mamogale, recently signed a mining deal worth R1,9-billion with African Platinum on behalf of the tribe.
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/ 6 November 2006
Thousands of gay Israelis are to rally in Jerusalem on Friday, defying the risk of violence from religious hard-liners outraged by what they brand an abomination to the sanctity of the Holy City. Ultra-Orthodox Jews have staged nightly violent protests, aiming to force the cancellation of an already twice-delayed event.
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/ 6 November 2006
China’s foreign exchange reserves officially hit a record-shattering -trillion on Monday, and they could top -trillion sooner rather than later, economists said. Even if Chinese officials have vowed to slow the growth in this huge stash of cash, they are up against vast and inexorable economic forces and, just as important, a national policy of keeping the currency stable.
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/ 6 November 2006
Chinese sociologists said that the country should promote bolder attitudes towards sex, but that wife-swapping was off the agenda, state media reported on Monday. Chinese attitudes towards sex have relaxed in recent decades, triggering a boom in extramarital relationships.
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/ 6 November 2006
Nicaraguans voted in huge numbers for a new president on Sunday with former Marxist guerrilla Daniel Ortega close to returning to power despite opposition from the United States. Sixteen years after he was thrown out of office by voters tired of a civil war with US-backed Contra rebels, the mustachioed Sandinista leader was ahead of his conservative rivals.
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/ 6 November 2006
Eritrea said on Monday it has ordered two more international aid agencies to leave the country, bringing to at least 11 the number of such groups expelled this year. Asmara said the services of the International Rescue Committee and the Samaritan’s Purse are no longer needed.
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/ 6 November 2006
An automated teller machine (ATM) at a petrol station in Pimville was badly damaged after dynamite was used to blow it open on Monday morning, Soweto police said. Sergeant Richard Munyai said the incident occurred at about 1am. ”The petrol attendants said they smelled something funny and went to investigate.”