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/ 30 October 2007
The United Nations on Monday demanded that the Taliban stop killing aid workers and looting aid convoys so that emergency supplies can reach vulnerable Afghans. Tom Koenigs, head of the UN mission to Afghanistan, said 34 aid workers had been killed by the Taliban and criminal gangs and 76 abducted so far this year.
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/ 30 October 2007
Germany’s civil servants have been drawn into an investigation into how much toilet paper they use — and are being encouraged to calculate the amount by the sheet. The inventory follows a parliamentary question by a Green party MP, Alexander Bonde, after it was erroneously reported that defence ministry civil servants and soldiers used 800-million rolls of paper a year.
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/ 30 October 2007
Maggie the elephant packed her trunk and said goodbye to Alaska at the weekend. The zoo in Anchorage has finally agreed to move its lone elephant to California after a lengthy debate that has pitched the interests of the 25-year-old animal against those keen to keep the state’s only elephant at the zoo.
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/ 30 October 2007
The head of the Wall Street investment bank Merrill Lynch was on Monday night negotiating a severance package tipped to be as high as -million after a risky strategy of betting billions on American mortgage-backed securities came disastrously unstuck.
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/ 30 October 2007
A two-year-old boy abducted by his father in mountainous terrain around Beaufort West was found unharmed on Monday afternoon, Western Cape police said. ”Jaylin Muller was found safe and sound between the hours of 3pm and 4pm today [Monday],” said Captain Malcolm Pojie.
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/ 30 October 2007
Tuareg-led rebels in Niger accused French uranium miner Areva on Monday of financing a government offensive and warned of ”grave consequences” for its staff and installations. The French government-controlled company has been caught in the middle of a rebellion launched in February by nomadic tribesmen.
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/ 30 October 2007
Africa’s biggest cement maker PPC on Tuesday posted a 16% rise in full-year headline earnings per share and forecast a healthy performance this fiscal year, as demand for building materials booms. PPC reported headline EPS of 263 cents and a 19% rise in revenue to R5,6-billion.
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/ 30 October 2007
United States State Department investigators looking into the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis in Baghdad last month offered immunity deals to Blackwater security guards. The investigators from the agency’s investigative arm did not, however, have the authority to offer such immunity grants.
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/ 30 October 2007
A top Zimbabwean banking executive, arrested after three years on the police wanted list, has appeared in court charged with breaching exchange controls and immigration laws, reports said on Tuesday. James Mushore, a former deputy managing director for NMB Bank, appeared before a Harare magistrate on Monday.
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/ 30 October 2007
Nigerian kidnappers have released six hostages seized on October 26 from an Italian offshore oil production facility. Rebel group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) had claimed responsibility for the attack on the Mystras vessel, located 85km offshore.