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/ 20 November 2007
A massive fire broke out at the Engen refinery in Durban on Monday night, the cause of which was not immediately known. However, Engen refinery spokesperson Herb Payne said it was possibly caused by a lightning strike. Payne said there were no injuries or fatalities and that all staff had been accounted for.
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/ 20 November 2007
A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders has failed to produce a joint declaration for a Middle East summit due next week in the United States, after they could not resolve key differences. The declaration that diplomats originally expected Israel and the Palestinians to agree on has yet to be agreed.
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/ 20 November 2007
Japan began fingerprinting foreigners entering the country on Tuesday in an anti-terrorism policy that has sparked complaints from human right activists, business travellers and long-term residents. Some foreign visitors arriving at Narita were unfazed by the new procedures, which involve electronic scanning of both index fingers.
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/ 20 November 2007
Armed with backpacks, sleeping bags, budget travel guides and hunger for a wider world long beyond their reach, backpackers from China are likely to be heading to a youth hostel near you. Loosened travel restrictions and a booming economy mean that growing numbers of young Chinese have visas and cash to travel abroad as never before.
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/ 20 November 2007
On a moonlit beach at the Wanan islet off south-west Taiwan, a group of tourists gather patiently to watch a green turtle using her flippers to cover the eggs she has just laid in the sand. The tourists count themselves lucky as the sea turtles, an endangered species in Taiwan, come to the beaches of several offshore islands for nesting for only a few months each year.
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/ 20 November 2007
A new analysis of South Africa’s huge university dropout rate confirms some suspected causes of students not completing their studies. But it also provides surprising reasons for optimism. Finances, poor school preparation and inadequate academic teaching and support are among the leading reasons cited by students who have dropped out.
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/ 19 November 2007
In the fevered talk these days about religion and secularism, there is little room for the thing Africans like me most fear: religious or cultural rationalism. Outside of tiny labs the general ignorance about science, even among people with good educations, is very high. I remember a famous Afrikaans rugby player, a medical doctor, saying in the 1990s that science had determined that black people could not swim — something to do with muscles and heavy bones.
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/ 19 November 2007
European Union agriculture experts have recommended a ban on South African ostrich meat, but the Department of Agriculture says it has no official knowledge of this threat to the R1,2-billion export industry. ”As I speak now, I don’t have any official correspondence [from the EU],” the department’s chief communications director said on Monday.
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/ 19 November 2007
European Union governments agreed on Monday to give a ”clear and tough” message to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on human rights at a summit of EU and African leaders next month. The December 8 to 9 summit in Lisbon will be the first between the two continents in seven years.