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/ 5 February 2008

China predicts ‘final victory’ in weather war

China’s prime minister said ”victory” was in sight on Tuesday with the country finally overcoming huge transport and power problems caused by weeks of savage weather. A huge backlog of passengers left stranded at airports, train stations and bus depots by blizzards and icy temperatures in the last three weeks appeared to be clearing.

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/ 5 February 2008

Clinton and Obama neck and neck

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spent the final, tension-filled hours before Tuesday’s Super Tuesday primaries squeezing out votes in the East Coast battlefield states where opinion polls place the contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination almost neck and neck.

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/ 5 February 2008

Eskom power boss replaced

Eskom has removed the man in charge of its power stations, the <i>Business Report</i> said on Tuesday. Ehud Matya has been replaced by Brian Dames, another Eskom executive, who will now be responsible for primary energy, power plants and his existing portfolio of capital investment.

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/ 5 February 2008

ANC branch meeting ends in blows

A number of African National Congress (ANC) members at Alice in the Eastern Cape have sustained injuries after a branch meeting ended in an exchange of blows, it was reported on Monday. Reports said a group of party supporters arrived at Khayalethu village during the registration process for an AGM and called for its dissolution.

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/ 5 February 2008

Govt, opposition seek to end Kenya conflict

Kenya’s government and the opposition begin detailed negotiations on Tuesday to try to end political and tribal conflict that has killed about 1 000 people and brought one of Africa’s brightest economies to its knees. The two sides agreed on Monday on immediate steps to help the hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence.

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/ 5 February 2008

UN Security Council slams rebel assault in Chad

The United Nations Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned the rebel attacks in Chad and urged world support for the embattled government as the insurgents threatened a new assault on the capital. A statement drafted by France, Chad’s former colonial ruler, "strongly condemns these attacks and all attempts at destabilisation by force".

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/ 5 February 2008

Water of life turns deadly

Most Mozambicans living in flood-prone areas have heeded calls to evacuate in the face of rising waters this year, but they’ll be back once the rivers subside. Françoise Le Goff, head of the International Federation of Red Cross told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> recently that even though the water levels were higher than the deadly floods in 2000 and 2001, only eight people had lost their lives.

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/ 5 February 2008

Dying to be a mother

With just eight years to go before the 2015 target for achieving the Millennium Development Goals one would expect to hear accounts of how motherhood is increasingly becoming a safer experience for women as countries strive to fulfil the fifth development goal of "improving maternal health". Sadly, this is not the case for the majority of Zimbabwean women.