Staff Reporter
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/ 11 October 2006

Reporter’s killing damaged Russia, says Putin

Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, vowed on Tuesday to pursue the killers of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, calling her murder a ”disgustingly cruel crime” which would not go unpunished, whatever the motive. Putin said the killing had inflicted much greater damage on his government than any of the journalist’s sharply critical writing.

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/ 11 October 2006

New tourism CEO takes over

The Tourism Business Council of South Africa has a new CEO, Mmatsatsi Marobe, who stepped into her role on October 1. ”I am committed to taking the TBCSA to a new level of service delivery and to bringing together public and private partners to realise the potential of tourism in the country,” Marobe said in a statement.

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/ 11 October 2006

Unchecked vision problems worsening poverty

About 153-million poor people with vision problems have no access to basic eye care, causing missed educational and work opportunities, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday. The United Nations agency said a sight test and glasses or contact lenses could improve children’s prospects at school and their parents’ job successes across the developing world.

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/ 11 October 2006

See how the other half lives

Pay-channel M-Net is inviting people to enter for Culture Shock, a new reality television show which will see families from two different cultures swapping homes and lives for two weeks. Carl Fischer, head of M-Net original productions, said on Wednesday the show would not seek to pit stereotypes against each other.

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/ 11 October 2006

Indonesians pray for rain ahead of haze meeting

Hundreds of people prayed for rain on Wednesday in an Indonesian province hard-hit by forest fires as south-east Asian environment ministers prepared to gather to discuss ways to tackle smoke haze covering the region. Dry season fires caused by farmers and big businesses such as plantations have been burning for weeks in parts of Indonesia.

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/ 11 October 2006

Amnesty: 11 000 child soldiers abandoned in DRC

At least 11 000 children are still with armed groups or unaccounted for more than two years after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched a programme to release and re-integrate child soldiers back into civilian life, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Girls in particular were worst affected, with most of those snatched by armed groups still unaccounted for.

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/ 11 October 2006

Missing plane found, no survivors

A light aircraft that went missing after it took off from Pietermaritzburg was found on Wednesday morning with no survivors on board, rescue services said. The plane, with the bodies of three occupants, was found at Rhino’s Peak in the southern Drakensberg, near Underberg in KwaZulu-Natal, said Santjie White, a spokesperson for the South African Search and Rescue Organisation.