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/ 27 February 2008
”The birds were flying around like it was daylight,” said David Alrewas, one of the thousands of Britons woken at night by the most severe earthquake to strike Britain in 25 years. The quake, measuring 5,3 on the Richter scale, according to the British Geological Survey, shook large parts of England and Wales at 1am GMT on Wednesday.
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/ 27 February 2008
A racist video — featuring University of the Free State employees on their knees eating food that had been urinated upon — was widely condemned by various institutions and political parties on Wednesday. The video, made by members of the Reitz men’s residence on the Bloemfontein campus, came to the attention of the public on Tuesday.
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/ 27 February 2008
The City of Johannesburg on Wednesday launched a timetable of possible four-hour power cuts to help industry and residents plan ahead. The timetable, effective from March 1, divides the city into eight geographic blocks and sets out the times when planned power cuts could occur, explained Vally Padayachee, director of engineering operations for City Power.
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/ 27 February 2008
Two Venezuelan helicopters flew into Colombia on Wednesday to pick up four lawmakers held hostage for years in jungle camps by Marxist rebels, in a diplomatic victory for Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia last month released two politicians in a deal brokered by Chávez.
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/ 27 February 2008
It is unclear whether proposed job cuts in the mining industry are caused by power cuts and electricity rationing, or other factors, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in Parliament on Wednesday. ”I’ve been a trade unionist for many years, and you often use an event like this to explain something you’re going to do anyway,” he said.
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/ 27 February 2008
The fraud case against former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director general Billy Masetlha and his two co-accused was postponed in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday. The case against Masetlha, IT specialist Muziwendoda Kunene and former NIA manager for electronic surveillance Funokwakhe Madlala was postponed to June 11 to 13.
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/ 27 February 2008
The Cape High Court on Wednesday rejected a second bail bid by murder accused Najwa Petersen, expressing scepticism over her ”almost miraculous recovery” from mental illness. ”The appellant’s case relating to her precarious state of health, as presented in the first bail application, appears to have undergone a complete volte-face in the second,” the judges said.
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/ 27 February 2008
Fasten your seatbelts, Super 14 rugby is coming to the East and Southern Cape. It may only be in 2010 or 2011 but the regions will be represented by a team in the Super 14. This was confirmed by project manager Godfrey Afrika on Wednesday, the man tasked by the South African Rugby Union and SA Rugby to oversee the procedure.
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/ 27 February 2008
The Bulls have included their fit-again World Cup Springboks Bakkies Botha and Akona Ndungane in the team to play the Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday in a repeat of last year’s Super 14 final. Their inclusion was expected, pending their fitness, but coach Frans Ludeke made a surprise selection of Morne Steyn at flyhalf, while giving Springbok Derick Hougaard a rest.
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/ 27 February 2008
Australia batsman Matthew Hayden has launched a verbal attack on India’s cricketers, describing Harbhajan Singh as an ”obnoxious weed” and challenging Ishant Sharma to a fight. Hayden said the Australian players were fed up with the constant complaints from the Indians about their on-field behaviour.