Staff Reporter
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/ 24 November 2007

Big Apple’s murder rate plunges

New York City, once widely feared for its mean streets scarred by random violence, is on course for its lowest murder rate in four decades with this year’s total expected to be below 500. A steady decline in the Big Apple’s violent-crime rate has left the city basking in a new-found glow of safety.

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/ 24 November 2007

Mortar barrage triggers Mogadishu clashes

Insurgents fired a barrage of mortars into an Ethiopian army camp in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, triggering heavy fighting, residents said. The clashes shattered a fortnight lull in the city after weeks of heavy fighting that had claimed dozens of lives, mainly of civilians, and displaced at least 200 000 people.

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/ 24 November 2007

China struggles to identify landslide victims

The bodies of 31 victims of a landslide in central China are so badly crushed that DNA samples may be needed to identify them, state media reported on Saturday. A long-distance bus was buried under an avalanche of boulders, earth and mud at the entrance to a railway tunnel being built in Hubei province near China’s massive Three Gorges Dam.

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/ 24 November 2007

Six schoolchildren die in Kabul suicide blast

A suicide bomb on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday killed six schoolchildren and wounded three Italians working on an aid project building a bridge, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said. ”It was a suicide bomber … six schoolchildren coming out from school were killed,” said Zemarai Bashary.

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/ 24 November 2007

Cape Minstrels get R1m centenary boost

The City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee supports a recommendation to donate R1-million to fund the cost of essential services during the centenary celebrations of the Cape Minstrels. Mayoral committee member Simon Grindrod said the ”Kaapse Klopse” are an important part of Cape Town’s rich history.

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/ 24 November 2007

Zuma gets another vote of confidence

African National Congress deputy president Zuma was named as the preferred presidential candidate of the Mpumalanga ANC general council, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. Zuma polled 263 votes at a the council meeting held at Waterval Boven on Friday.

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/ 24 November 2007

Journalist demands apology from Gevisser

Journalist Charlene Smith on Friday demanded a public apology from Mark Gevisser, author of the book Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred, saying he had published ”serious inaccuracies”. She was referring to an article by her, published in the Washington Post, that Gevisser quoted in his biography of Mbeki.

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/ 24 November 2007

Miner dead in Harmony rockfall

One miner has died and another was injured following an underground accident at Harmony Gold’s Elandsrand mine on Friday, the company said. ”He succumbed to his injuries after he was trapped underground for four hours. His body was discovered in the afternoon,” said chief operating officer Alwyn Pretorius.