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/ 18 January 2007
Power cuts rippled across South Africa on Thursday, blacking out parts of major cities and spurring warnings from state utility Eskom that unexpected shortages could extend into next week. The cuts, which Eskom attributed to power-station maintenance and the shutdown of one unit at Koeberg, caused power failures stretching from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
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/ 18 January 2007
Torrential rains have destroyed more than 1 000 houses, leaving more than 6 000 people homeless in northern Mozambique, officials said on Thursday. A statement by the government’s relief agency said 13 classrooms have also been swept away by the rain, and a further 150 houses are at risk of collapse.
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/ 18 January 2007
At least four workers were killed and 39 injured when a fire broke out on Thursday in a tower under construction in Dubai, the trading hub of the United Arab Emirates, a hospital official and witnesses said. Dozens of workers were trapped by thick smoke as rescue crews tried to reach them. Witnesses said they saw a man fall from one of the 37-storey building’s upper floors.
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/ 18 January 2007
It’s official: Glenn Agliotti is the "Landlord" accused by the Scorpions of being a boss in one of the country’s "most prominent syndicates" involved in the smuggling of drugs and other contraband. Agliotti appeared in the Alberton Regional Court on Thursday to be joined as an accused in a R200-million drugs trial.
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/ 18 January 2007
The National Taxi Alliance (NTA) would take legal action to stop the recapitalisation programme, the organisation decided on Thursday. If this failed, the NTA’s members would go on strike, its president, Sicelo Mabaso, told a meeting of NTA affiliates in Johannesburg.
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/ 18 January 2007
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has said for the first time she is being racially abused in a British reality TV show, which has sparked protests in London and New Delhi and damaged Britain’s image of tolerance. Shetty and her fellow contestants on Celebrity Big Brother are oblivious to the international row that has erupted over her treatment.
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/ 18 January 2007
The Iraqi government on Thursday rejected as ”superficial” and ”unprofessional” a United Nations report this week that said 34 000 civilians were killed in Iraq last year, but it did not directly reject the figure itself. Spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh also criticised a UN call for protection for homosexuals, who say they are targeted by Islamic militants.
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/ 18 January 2007
Truckers and others working in the road-freight industry could go on strike soon, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) warned on Thursday. Satawu spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said negotiations with road-freight sector employers had collapsed.
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/ 18 January 2007
Michael Mbanjwa made history on Thursday in the first stage of this year’s edition of the Hansa Powerade Dusi canoe marathon when he placed first. This makes history as he is the first black paddler to ever win the first stage of the three-day event.
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/ 18 January 2007
The amount of nicotine that smokers typically inhale per cigarette rose by 11% from 1998 to 2005, perpetuating a ”tobacco pandemic” that makes it harder for smokers to quit, a Harvard study said on Thursday. To boost amounts of nicotine inhaled by smokers, cigarette makers intensified the concentration of nicotine in their tobacco and modified cigarette designs.