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/ 18 January 2008
Two intrepid adventurers are planning to swap extreme cold for extreme heat after becoming the first South Africans to walk unsupported to the South Pole. Speaking only hours after completing their epic 1 113km journey, Alex Harris said on Friday that he and his teammate, Sibusiso Vilane, had now decided to take on a desert.
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/ 18 January 2008
Pakistani forces killed up to 90 militants in two battles on Friday in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, the military said. The clashes came two days after hundreds of militants overran a paramilitary fort in another part of South Waziristan.
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/ 18 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank introduced new higher value banknotes on Friday that failed to ease a cash shortage that has kept commercial banks busy with long queues of desperate residents wanting to withdraw money. Banknotes have joined a growing list of basic items in short supply in the crisis-hit country.
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/ 18 January 2008
Bobby Fischer, who died on January 17 aged 64, was a high school dropout who may have been the greatest chess player of all time, but ended his life in eccentric seclusion. The United States-born player had lived for the last two years in Iceland after serving eight months behind bars in Japan.
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/ 18 January 2008
Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane met representatives of political parties in Pretoria on Friday to discuss the subject of presidential pardons. The discussions at the Union Buildings dealt with applications from perpetrators of alleged political crimes committed before June 16 1999.
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/ 18 January 2008
Eskom must provide answers about the ongoing electricity crisis, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Friday. In a statement, the SAHRC said it and the Public Protector could soon work together in an investigation to establish why Eskom had instituted power cuts to the extent that it has.
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/ 18 January 2008
The African Union Commission’s chairperson recommended on Friday a six-month extension for a peacekeeping force in Somalia and criticised member states for failing to honour pledges for troops. A 1 800-strong AU Mission in Somalia has been carrying out peacekeeping duties in Mogadishu, where Islamist insurgents have been fighting the interim government.
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/ 18 January 2008
Google has been accused of trying to take over the world, but on Thursday the internet giant revealed more details of its plans to help the globe. One scheme, called Predict and Prevent, will target infections by investing heavily in the development of computer tracking systems to allow scientists to speedily identify potential outbreaks.
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/ 18 January 2008
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer has died of an unspecified illness, a spokesperson for the late champion said on Friday. He was 64. Fischer, who beat Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 to become world champion, was considered by some chess experts to be the greatest player of all time.
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/ 18 January 2008
A few days ago a Pakistani newspaper published a cartoon of a political weather map forecasting bombs all across Pakistan. It is all too real. There has been no let-up in attacks in a country still reeling from the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide-bomb attack last month.