Staff Reporter
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/ 27 October 2007

Darfur peace talks begin without key rebels

Delegations gathered in Libya on Saturday to launch talks to end four-and-a-half years of conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region but the absence of key rebels cast doubt on whether negotiations could produce any meaningful deal. On the eve of the African Union-United Nations-mediated talks in Sirte, two main rebel groups said they would not attend.

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/ 27 October 2007

Mugabe rejects MDC’s violence claims

President Robert Mugabe has dismissed claims by the Zimbabwe opposition that its supporters are victims of politically motivated violence, state media reported on Saturday. Mugabe challenged the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to substantiate allegations of attacks on its followers, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.

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/ 27 October 2007

Quake shakes Greek island

An earthquake measuring five on the Richter scale on Saturday shook the Greek island of Zakynthos, though no damage was immediately reported, the Geodynamic Observatory Institute in Athens said. The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 8.32am local time was in the Ionian Sea about 330km south-west of Athens, the institute said.

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/ 27 October 2007

Soweto residents cheer on the Boks

Soweto residents left their houses to cheer on the Springbok rugby team on its victory parade through the Johannesburg township on Saturday morning. A handful of cheering residents, some still in their night-gowns, braved the rain to greet the Rugby World Cup winners as they passed the Maponya Mall in an open-top bus.

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/ 27 October 2007

Ramos resigns from Sevilla

Juande Ramos on Friday night resigned as manager of Sevilla, the Spanish team said, clearing the way for the award-winning Spaniard to join Tottenham. Sevilla said that Ramos had unilaterally rescinded his contract, presenting documents to this effect to senior team officials at the Sevilla stadium. The club referred to Ramos as ”the now former coach of Sevilla”.

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/ 27 October 2007

Nobel DNA pioneer Arthur Kornberg dies at 89

United States biochemist Arthur Kornberg, who won a Nobel Prize for shedding light on the construction of human DNA, died on October 26 at the age of 89, Stanford University said. "Dr Kornberg was one of the most distinguished and remarkable scientists in American medicine," the head of the California university’s medical school, Philip Pizzo, said in a statement.

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/ 27 October 2007

Strong Bok team for Welsh clash

World champions South Africa will be almost at full strength for next month’s Test match against Wales in Cardiff, the Welsh Rugby Union said on Friday. Springbok captain John Smit will lead South Africa, who won the World Cup last Saturday when they beat England in the final in Paris, in the Test at the Millennium Stadium on November 24.

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/ 27 October 2007

Putin: US risks new Cuban missile crisis

Vladimir Putin stirred ghosts of the Cold War on Friday by comparing the Pentagon’s plan to site elements of its missile shield in Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union went to the brink of nuclear war. The Kremlin’s challenge to the US president in 1962 triggered the worst confrontation of the Cold War.