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/ 12 October 2006
France’s lower house of Parliament on Thursday backed a Bill that makes it a crime to deny claims that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I. Though the Senate or President Jacques Chirac can still block the Bill, Turkey has made clear the move will badly damage relations with France.
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/ 12 October 2006
Twenty-six call centre workers — two of whom are pregnant — were hospitalised after insecticide leaked into the air conditioning during ”routine fumigation work”, Discovery Health said on Thursday. The incident occurred on Wednesday at 6pm at the company’s headquarters in Johannesburg. A preliminary investigation indicated that a technical fault was the likely cause of the problem.
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/ 12 October 2006
South African Herschelle Gibbs revealed on Thursday the names of three former Proteas cricketers involved in a match-fixing scam, said Indian police who now want to question the trio. One of the three was Derek Crookes who toured India with the South African squad in 2000 and played 32 one-day matches making 1 001 runs. Police declined to identify the other two.
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/ 12 October 2006
No evidence has been found of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) blacklisting some commentators and analysts because of their political views, the public broadcaster reported on Thursday. Mpofu said a commission of inquiry had found there was no blanket ban on certain political commentators and analysts.
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/ 12 October 2006
Media will have to cough up R1 000 a seat to report on President Thabo Mbeki’s speech at a South African Communist Party (SACP) dinner at the weekend, the party said on Thursday. Another option for ”media houses” was to obtain a table for 10 at a cost of R10 000 for the event that will also be attended by SACP leader Blade Nzimande.
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/ 12 October 2006
When they buried Rafiq Siam, the traffic stopped and hundreds of armed men, some firing into the air, gathered at the Gaza mosque. Eight men wearing red berets and black combat uniforms lifted his body wrapped in a white shroud and Palestinian flag and carried it inside with as much ceremony as the pressing crowd would allow.
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/ 12 October 2006
National Blood Services Zimbabwe (NBSZ) has stopped blood supplies to hospitals after a generator at its complex went up in flames, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. Its website said the generator in Harare was used to power refrigerators, 14 cold rooms and laboratories. The damage to the generator meant staff at NBSZ were working manually.
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/ 12 October 2006
A wage agreement between Shoprite Checkers employees and management has ended a three-month countrywide strike, the retail chain said on Thursday. The company concluded the strike with a three-year wage deal with the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union on Wednesday evening, said Callie Burger, the Shoprite group’s personnel director.
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/ 12 October 2006
Global brewing giant SABMiller is to launch an innovative chocolate beer, brewed with six different malts, including a dark chocolate malt. The launch is in line with the group’s continuing efforts to develop its specialist beer portfolio. Under the name Frederick Miller Classic Chocolate Lager, the beer has been developed after extensive research by SABMiller’s United States subsidiary, Miller Brewing Company.
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/ 12 October 2006
When Microsoft launches its Zune to compete with Apple’s iPod, it won’t just be reversing its own strategies, but going against two decades of received wisdom. This could indicate a sea-change that will help more people get what they want. But it could also lead to users being increasingly locked into whichever systems they happen to buy.