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/ 10 October 2007
A Burma opposition leader who was arrested during last month’s mass protests against the junta died due to torture during interrogation, an activist group said on Wednesday. And in Washington, the United States threatened new sanctions against Burma after media reports of the death of Win Shwe.
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/ 10 October 2007
Several labour and civil-society organisations have asked President Thabo Mbeki to hold back on appointing the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board and return the list of names approved by the National Assembly last month. ”We have asked him not to appoint them,” the organisations said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
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/ 10 October 2007
Conventional food aid is not enough to solve Africa’s malnutrition crisis, especially in nations wracked by conflict, an international health agency said on Wednesday. In a continent where thousands of young children suffer from acute malnutrition, the use of nutrient-dense ready-to-use foods needs urgent expansion, Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF) said.
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/ 10 October 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) got it wrong when criticising Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya for travelling abroad, his department said on Wednesday. The DA overcalculated the number of overseas visits he made, the number of days he was out of the country and the cost, it said in a statement in his defence.
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/ 10 October 2007
Negotiations between the Scorpions and the late Brett Kebble’s security chief, Clinton Nassif, will be finalised in court on Friday. Scorpions prosecutor Gerrie Nel said the Scorpions had not yet completed discussions with Nassif about his arrest for involvement in alleged drug dealing.
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/ 10 October 2007
Dozens of families, many of them empty-handed, returned on Wednesday to a bombed-out Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon that was the scene of 15 weeks of fierce battles between the army and Islamist militants. Buses and mini-vans hired by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency picked up the first families from the Beddawi refugee camp.
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/ 10 October 2007
English cricketing legend Ian Botham was formally made a knight of the realm by Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday in a ceremony at her official Buckingham Palace residence in central London. Botham, whose career has combined a rare talent on the cricket field with a flamboyant lifestyle off it, was rewarded for his services to sport and to charity in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
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/ 10 October 2007
South Africa marched towards setting a stiff target for Pakistan in the second Test on Wednesday. The visitors were 154-2 at stumps on day three — enjoying an overall lead of 305 runs with captain Graeme Smith batting on 75 and in-form Jacques Kallis not out on 37.
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/ 10 October 2007
Sudan’s army has denied attacking the only Darfur rebel faction to sign a peace deal with Khartoum, saying tribal clashes were to blame for the fighting that killed 45 people in Muhajiriya town. The Sudan Liberation Army, led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, was the only one of three negotiating rebel factions to sign the May 2006 deal and become part of government.
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/ 10 October 2007
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) has expressed concern about the exposure of its members and staff to crime in South Africa. PAP president Gertrude Mongella said both delegates from other countries and staff had been victims of crime since the Parliament’s inception. ”There is so much insecurity — we had several incidents of robbery” she said on Wednesday.