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/ 12 October 2006
The death toll in Iraq following the United States-led invasion has topped 655 000 — one in 40 of the entire population — according to a major piece of research in one of the world’s leading medical journals. The study claims the total number of deaths is more than 10 times greater than any previously compiled estimate.
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/ 12 October 2006
It may only have been a matter of minutes but for many New Yorkers it seemed so much longer — and so terribly reminiscent. A pall of thick black smoke hung over the Manhattan skyline. Bits of the tail wing of a plane lay scattered on the pavement. Two floors of a tower block were engulfed in an intense blaze.
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/ 12 October 2006
South Africa on Thursday defended President Thabo Mbeki’s maligned mediation efforts in the world’s top cocoa producer, Côte d’Ivoire, which has been split in half since a September 2002 rebellion. ”South Africa did not go and start mediating in the Côte d’Ivoire issue because we had nothing to do,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Cape Town.
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/ 12 October 2006
Leaders in the West African regional bloc Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States) have decided to end the mediation role of South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki in Côte d’Ivoire, seen to be aligned to President Laurent Gbagbo, sources said on Thursday. The leaders in Ecowas ”decided to set aside the South African mediation” said Ivorian New Forces rebel leader Guillaume Soro.
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/ 11 October 2006
US authorities scrambled fighter jets above US cities on Wednesday as a precaution after a small plane crashed into an apartment building in New York, a senior commander said. Admiral Tim Keating, commander of the US Northern Command, would not say how many cities were under air cover but insisted there was no sign of terrorism in the accident on Manhattan’s post Upper East Side.
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/ 11 October 2006
A small aircraft crashed into a high-rise building in New York City on Wednesday, killing at least two people and prompting US authorities to scramble fighter jets as a precaution. Officials emphasised the crash was not an act of terrorism but an accident. The accident claimed the life of American baseball player Cory Lidle, who was thought to be piloting the plane.
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/ 11 October 2006
Madagascar police have released six detained opposition members, including a senator, but political tensions flared as their party’s exiled leader vowed to return despite arrest threats. Government officials renewed pledges to detain Arema party chief Pierrot Rajaonarivelo if he sets foot on the Indian Ocean island, saying they had proof of financial crimes
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/ 11 October 2006
The secretariat of the tripartite alliance has appealed to the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party to put aside their differences after a public spat, it said on Wednesday. ”We call upon all those involved to stop, as a continuation of this will hamper the capacity of the alliance to provide effective leadership to society and our members,” the parties said in a statement.
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/ 11 October 2006
Work on diverting hundreds of utility services is about to start at four Gautrain stations, the Bombela consortium said on Wednesday. Bombela’s Chris Andrew said about 800 utility connections, including telephone lines, water and electricity connections, had to be moved at the four stations.
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/ 11 October 2006
Four men were arrested on Wednesday after a shoot-out between robbers and security guards in central Johannesburg the day before left a baby dead and seven other people wounded, police said. Six other men were still at large after Tuesday’s cash-in-transit heist, and police have vowed to arrest them soon, said Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht.