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/ 29 December 2005
British diplomats secretly discussed the idea of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussen undergoing a back operation in Britain 30 years ago, official files released on Thursday showed. When the notion was floated in 1975, Saddam was considered a key figure in the Arab world worth courting and not the international pariah he later became.
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/ 29 December 2005
Business was booming, said Hassan Saidzada, the manager of a watch shop in Kabul’s glitziest shopping centre. Cabinet ministers, jihadi commanders and newly made tycoons were flocking in again, he boasted, waving a hand across a softly lit display of sparkling Swiss watches.
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/ 28 December 2005
When Philimon Banda fell ill last year in his small village on the edge of Lake Mweru in northern Zambia, he went to 15 local witchdoctors who all told him he had been possessed. One said he had a snake in his body drinking his blood, another that he had been inhabited by a ghost, a third that he had been bewitched by jealous neighbours.
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/ 28 December 2005
A former Chinese Cabinet minister was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday in a high-level bribery case that has exposed rampant corruption in the country’s profit-oriented dictatorship. The highest level bribery trial in four years was hailed by the state-controlled media as a sign that the authorities were cracking down on influence-peddling and illegal land transfers.
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/ 28 December 2005
President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday congratulated Bolivia’s new President Evo Morales, describing his election as evidence of the continuing changes in Latin America. He said the South African government and its people stood ready to continue working to advance the developmental agenda of the south in general and of Bolivia in particular.
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/ 28 December 2005
Pretoria police are investigating whether the alleged hijacking and cash-heist kingpin they arrested on Friday was involved in armed robberies in Garsfontein and Lyttelton during his three years on the run. Andrew Pilusa (27) is accused of being part of the syndicate behind more than 40 hijackings and two cash-in-transit heists.
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/ 28 December 2005
The death toll on South Africa’s roads over the holiday season has reached 965, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Collen Msibi said 411 of the casualties were pedestrians and 88 were children under 14. Msibi said that although ”shocking”, the figure was down from the 1 140 deaths over the same period last year.
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/ 28 December 2005
Under-siege all-rounder Andrew Symonds says he must trust his instincts to fight for his Test career after starring with the ball for Australia against South Africa in the second cricket Test on Wednesday. Symonds, whose position in the team is under threat before next week’s final Sydney Test after a woeful run of scores, made his mark with a 16-ball spell of 3-7 with his medium-pacers as South Africa conceded a 44-run innings deficit.
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/ 28 December 2005
The decade-long hunt for the Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic appeared to be close to a breakthrough on Tuesday after police revealed they had intercepted one of his cellphone calls. Serbian officials said the arrest of General Mladic ”has never been closer”.
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/ 28 December 2005
Few changes are expected in Egypt’s new government, newspapers reported on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif continued consultations to finalise his new Cabinet line-up. According to the Egyptian press, the new Cabinet will be downsized from 34 to 30 portfolios, 23 of which will remain unchanged.