Staff Reporter
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/ 29 October 2007

Body-parts accused pleads guilty

A KwaZulu-Natal woman accused of stealing a placenta pleaded guilty to the crime at the Durban Regional Court on Monday. Hloniphile Sokhela was charged with theft and contravening the Human Tissue Act. The mother of two stole a placenta from a storage room at Parklands Hospital on October 6.

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/ 29 October 2007

Russia’s ‘chessboard killer’ given life in prison

A judge handed out a sentence of life in prison on Monday to Russia’s ”chessboard murderer”, who was convicted last week of killing 48 people. The sentence was read out by the judge as Alexander Pichushkin, a 33-year-old former supermarket worker, looked at the ground, a reporter in court said. Asked if he understood, Pichushkin replied: ”I’m not deaf. I understood.”

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/ 29 October 2007

Oil hits record high above $93

Oil prices jumped to fresh historic highs on Monday, breaching $93 for the first time on mounting concerns about tight energy supplies worldwide, analysts said. Investors pushed up crude futures to new peaks as more bad news in the shape of Mexican production cutbacks came on top of already serious tensions in the Middle East.

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/ 29 October 2007

DA: Deal with taxi violence before 2010

Concrete moves are needed to address conflict in the Johannesburg taxi industry ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, following the shooting of a passenger and a driver on the West Rand, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Proper enforcement of laws and a body ”with teeth” would contribute to passenger safety, said Barnes.

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/ 29 October 2007

Flintoff, the training session … and the bottle

Former England captain Andrew Flintoff turned up to a training session last winter under the influence of alcohol, the then England coach Duncan Fletcher revealed on Monday. The revelation which forced Fletcher to cancel the session comes in his new autobiography, which had widely been expected to lift the lid on the 5-0 Ashes debacle.

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/ 29 October 2007

Somali Prime Minister Gedi to resign

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has arrived in Baidoa to resign in front of the Parliament later on Monday following a lengthy political feud with President Abdullahi Yusuf, officials and diplomats said. The Gedi-Yusuf split had weakened the government as it faced an Islamist-led insurgency this year.