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/ 12 February 2007
Durban’s mayor, Obed Mlaba, on Monday rejected weekend media reports that a National Intelligence Agency (NIA) security check of his office was linked to succession battles within the African National Congress. ”These people [the media] must come up with something to sell newspapers,” he said.
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/ 12 February 2007
At least 22 Durban factory workers had to be taken to hospital with respiratory problems on Monday morning, paramedics said. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said 18 of them were from the Beacon Sweets factory in the Jacobs industrial area, while the other four were from a nearby shoe factory.
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/ 12 February 2007
Sudan will not allow a United Nations human rights team to visit unless they replace a member of the delegation who Khartoum says is biased, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday. A six-member UN rights team was due to arrive this week in Sudan to investigate alleged abuses in Darfur. But the government has said they will not get visas.
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/ 12 February 2007
The Department of Minerals and Energy is in the process of finalising an integrated plan to ensure there is security of electricity supply in the country, minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said. Addressing the media during an economic cluster briefing on Monday, Sonjica said the plan will be submitted to the Cabinet in July.
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/ 12 February 2007
South African fixed-line phone firm Telkom has offered to buy an African internet service (ISP) provider for £9,72-million in a deal that would mark its first foreign foray as it tries to offset sagging revenues at home. Telkom said in a statement on Monday it was in talks with unlisted London-based African Lakes Corporation to buy Africa Online.
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/ 12 February 2007
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation leapt to a new record 1Â 593,6% in January, showing no respite in a crisis marked by chronic shortages of foreign exchange, food and fuel and unemployment of more than 80%. Inflation, which the government has dubbed its number one enemy, is the highest in the world.
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/ 12 February 2007
South Africa said on Monday a new government-owned telecommunications infrastructure firm, InfraCo, would boost long-distance connectivity and bring down telecoms costs, often cited as a barrier to competitiveness. Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin told a news briefing that the firm would carry broadband fibre between large cities and towns.
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/ 12 February 2007
Three bomb attacks at markets in central Baghdad killed at least 76 people on Monday as Iraqis marked the first anniversary of a Shi’ite shrine bombing that pitched the country to the brink of civil war. In the deadliest attack, twin car bombings exploded in quick succession in the Shorja wholesale market, killing at least 71 people.
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/ 12 February 2007
All the assets of financial-services firm Fidentia will be used to recover millions of rands it cannot account for, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday. It said this was decided at a meeting in Cape Town earlier in the day between curators and officials of the transport Seta (Sector Education and Training Authority).
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/ 12 February 2007
The Iraqi High Court ruled on Monday that Saddam Hussein’s former vice-president should follow him to the gallows, despite appeals from United Nations officials and international human rights groups for his life to be spared. ”God knows I didn’t do anything wrong,” Taha Yassin Ramadan said shortly before judge Ali al-Kahachi sentenced him to death by hanging.