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/ 24 December 2007
A first contingent of 100 peacekeepers from Burundi deployed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, hours after fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces killed at least four people. The arrival of the soldiers marked the first phase of long-delayed support for 1 600 Ugandan troops.
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/ 24 December 2007
Heidelberg police are searching for the driver of a yellow Toyota Cressida that was involved in an accident in which one person died, Ekurhuleni police said on Sunday. The Toyota Cressida — bearing the number plate CJM 710 GP — collided with a white Hyundai three-tonne truck, leaving the driver of the truck dead.
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/ 24 December 2007
A three-year-old Germiston toddler will spend Christmas recovering after being raped by a friend of the family, police said on Monday. Germiston police spokesperson Captain Steady Nawa said the child’s mother was preparing a meal on Sunday when she noticed that her daughter was missing.
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/ 24 December 2007
Uzbekistan’s autocratic ruler Islam Karimov on Sunday tightened his grip on power, when he was re-elected president in an election condemned by opposition activists as illegal and a ”farce”. Karimov won an overwhelming victory despite being ineligible to stand as a candidate.
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/ 24 December 2007
Sri Lankan troops killed 41 Tamil Tiger fighters in a series of weekend clashes in the island’s civil war-ravaged north, while three soldiers were also killed, the military said on Monday. Eleven rebels were killed in fighting in the northern districts of Vavuniya and Jaffna on Sunday, while another eight were killed in the north-western district of Mannar.
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/ 24 December 2007
China has sanctioned state-owned companies to examine three possible strategies to block BHP Billiton’s proposed takeover of mining giant Rio Tinto, a report said Monday. Strategies include forming a domestic consortium to bid for Rio Tinto, a joint bid by domestic and foreign firms, or purchasing Rio shares on the open market.
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/ 24 December 2007
"A child if I want and when I want," reads the sign at the family-health centre in Niamey where dozens of Niger women come to get free contraceptives. "I was taking the pill without my husband’s knowledge," said Zahratou Amadou, a 38-year-old mother of 10. "When he found out he repudiated me."
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/ 24 December 2007
After almost a decade of poor cocoa production during the 1980s, the Ghanaian government is upbeat about the subsequent growth in output of the product that is the country’s main export, providing more than 60% of foreign earnings. Swollen-shoot disease remains a headache, though.
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/ 24 December 2007
Worried that it may be seen as insensitive to the food needs of Africa, the South African government, which is facing a general election in 2009, has chosen food security in framing a biofuel policy. After months of dilly-dallying, a strategy for the biofuel sector was accepted by the Cabinet at the start of December.
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/ 24 December 2007
Easily portable, consumable goods from Zimbabwe are increasingly finding their way into neighbouring countries as cross-border traders search for deals to earn much-needed foreign currency. Zimbabwe is battling acute foreign-exchange shortages as its political and economic crisis drags on.