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/ 4 February 2008
The Department of Home Affairs wasted more than R56-million in detaining illegal immigrants who did not exist, according to its 2007 annual report. The department had to pay a contractor for a fixed number of immigrants, regardless of the actual number detained, wrote the Auditor General in the report.
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/ 4 February 2008
Nine people, including five children, were killed in a fire in an apartment building in the western German city of Ludwigshafen, police said on Monday. Adults and children jumped out of windows to escape the flames, officials said. Twenty people were being treated in hospital with injuries.
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/ 4 February 2008
At least one person has been killed in a suicide bomb attack in southern Israel on Monday — the first inside the country for a year. Firefighters told radio stations that at least one person had died in the blast, which happened in the commercial district of the southern town of Dimona.
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/ 4 February 2008
Egyptian security forces closed the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday nearly two weeks after the wall was first breached. Gunmen from the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, appeared to be cooperating with the Egyptians, turning back crowds of Palestinians as barbed wire and metal barricades were installed.
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/ 4 February 2008
From the Indonesian city where Barack Obama spent part of his childhood to Hong Kong’s bars and a Dublin pub, United States Democrats abroad grabbed their first chance to vote in Super Tuesday primaries. The venues are about as far removed from formal political institutions as possible, from pubs and cafés to bookshops.
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/ 4 February 2008
South African business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, chosen by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan to head long-term mediation efforts in Kenya, pulled out on Monday because of reservations expressed by the Kenyan government. ”Kofi Annan reluctantly accepts the withdrawal of Cyril Ramaphosa from the role of chief mediator,” a UN official said.
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/ 4 February 2008
Property owners are gearing themselves for the lucrative renting market in 2010, when South Africa hosts the Soccer World Cup, but should be cautious as the football party tenants descend en masse. The World Cup is less than three years away and South African property owners have spotted a potential gap in the market.
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/ 4 February 2008
Sales of new vehicles were down by 9,4% in the first month of the year to 47 296 sold compared with the 52 212 sold in January last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said on Monday. New car sales were down to 30 483, or 14,6%, in January this year compared with 35 687 sold in the same month last year.
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/ 4 February 2008
The attempted murder case against former Springbok rugby player James Dalton was struck from a Pretoria court roll on Monday. He can now only be prosecuted again for this alleged offence once the state is issued with a certificate from the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
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/ 4 February 2008
A Briton alleged to be the mastermind behind a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea has been ”kidnapped” and his legal team has lost contact with him, his lawyer said on Monday. Simon Mann was flown out of Zimbabwe, where he was in prison, early Thursday after being handed over to officials from Equatorial Guinea.