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/ 1 February 2008
Prominent South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa was expected in Kenya later on Friday to help mediate in talks between the government and the opposition aimed at ending a month of post-election violence. Ramaphosa led the African National Congress in negotiations with the National Party to end apartheid in the early 1990s.
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/ 1 February 2008
South African mines made slow progress in bringing back production on Friday after Eskom allowed them to make only limited increases to their electricity consumption. The power cuts that shut the mines a week ago have helped push global precious metals prices to record highs and stoked concerns about a slowdown of growth.
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/ 1 February 2008
Chad’s army fought to hold off advancing rebels 100km from the capital, Ndjamena, on Friday as the renewed combat delayed the deployment of European peacekeepers to the Central African country. Up to 3 700 European Union troops were due to arrive in coming weeks on an urgent peacekeeping mission to eastern Chad.
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/ 1 February 2008
Floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 12 people across Indonesia and the capital’s main airport was briefly shut on Friday as more than 40 flights were delayed due to low visibility. Scores of cars were stranded and people had to wade through murky knee-high water in many parts of Jakarta.
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/ 1 February 2008
Russians visiting a health resort received a rude shock when a nurse used hydrogen peroxide instead of water to give them enemas. Itar-Tass news agency reported Thursday that 17 tourists in the Caucasus spa town of Yessentuki had to be treated in hospital after the mix-up.
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/ 1 February 2008
The death toll from a cyclone that hit Madagascar on Sunday has risen to 12 people from two and 5 000 others are in need of aid, a senior relief official said on Friday. Cyclone Fame struck the giant Indian Ocean island’s west coast over the weekend but has since moved away.
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/ 1 February 2008
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A host of defamation claims lodged by the African National Congress president Jacob Zuma against several publications were on Friday slashed to ”approximately R12-million”, a spokesperson for Zuma said. Liesl Göttert said: ”Mr Jacob Zuma will instruct his media legal team to drop the defamation component of all media claims that he instituted against some media.”
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/ 1 February 2008
Russia accused Europe’s main election watchdog of trying to sabotage plans for monitoring its presidential election next month, the latest round of an increasingly bitter dispute with the West over democracy. Russia said the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s monitoring body, ODIHR, was trying to politicise monitoring of the March 2 election.
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/ 1 February 2008
Australia captain Michael Clarke steered his side to a nine-wicket victory over India in their Twenty20 international at a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. After skittling the world champions out for just 74, with Nathan Bracken taking three wickets, Clarke then scored 37 of Australia’s runs needed for victory.
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/ 1 February 2008
Value-Added Tax (VAT) registration would be easier from this month, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Friday. Sars said the new VAT-registration process reduced the paperwork required for registration and provided for the instant issuing of VAT registration numbers over the counter at Sars branches.