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/ 19 October 2006

Meles urges Eritrea, rebels to choose dialogue

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Thursday urged Eritrea and rebel groups he said it supports to talk peace and stop trying to destabilise his Horn of Africa country. The United Nations said Eritrea’s decision to move troops and tanks into a United Nations buffer zone between the two countries was a ”major breach” of a 2000 peace agreement.

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/ 19 October 2006

Complete Darwin works put online

The complete evolutionary works of Charles Darwin have gone online, including the stolen notebook he carried in his pocket around the Galapagos Islands. Tens of thousands of pages of text and pictures and audio files have been made available, including some previously unpublished manuscripts and diaries of the great British scientist.

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/ 19 October 2006

Grumpy Kazakhs invite Borat to ‘his’ land, at last

Alarmed by the antics of a fictional TV reporter who portrays their country as a nation of horse urine-drinking misogynists, Kazakh authorities have invited the British comedian who plays the character to come and see the truth for himself. Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh first deputy foreign ministe, asked British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to visit the vast, oil-rich steppe nation.

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/ 19 October 2006

Life goes on for Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane said he was coping well with life outside soccer and had no immediate plans to embark on a coaching career. The former France and Real Madrid playmaker, who retired after his country’s defeat by Italy in the World Cup final in July, said he did not miss competitive football.

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/ 19 October 2006

Kenyan football officials claim Fifa prejudice

Kenyan football officials on Thursday accused Fifa of applying double standards in its condemnation of the country as they braced for another suspension for the second time in as many years. Fifa’s executive committee proposed on Wednesday that Kenya be suspended for failing to respect agreements to resolve recurrent problems in the country’s football association.

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/ 19 October 2006

Darfur rebels demand new talks

A new Darfur rebel alliance is ready for talks with the government but demands self-determination for the war-torn, arid west of the country, senior rebel leaders said on Thursday. A May peace accord was signed by only one of three negotiating rebel factions and tens of thousands of war victims have rejected it.

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/ 19 October 2006

SA faces challenge in housing delivery

Housing delivery in South Africa needs to double from the current delivery rate of about 250 000 housing units a year to 500 000 units if the backlog is to be removed and supply to new urban residents to be fulfilled, Director General of Land and Housing Irumuleng Kotsoane said on Thursday.