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/ 8 November 2007
Pakistani national elections will take place before February 15, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday, after Western allies and opponents had demanded polls be held on time and emergency rule scrapped. Pakistan had been scheduled to hold elections by mid-January until the general imposed emergency powers on Saturday.
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/ 8 November 2007
BHP Billiton has made a long-awaited bid approach to Rio Tinto in a move aimed at creating a $350-billion-plus mining giant, but Rio rejected the all-share proposal as too low. Rio shares leapt as much as 30% in London to a record high on Thursday after it said BHP had proposed offering three of its shares for every one Rio share.
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/ 8 November 2007
Gauteng police communications have not been jeopardised by the introduction of the 10111 digital radio network, Superintendent Eugene Opperman said on Thursday. He was responding to media reports that the R600-million system had crippled communications at police stations across Johannesburg.
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/ 8 November 2007
Cold, rainy conditions are expected to lessen the number of firework injuries on animals and people during Diwali this year, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said on Thursday. ”It seems the weather is not conducive for setting off fireworks,” said the SPCA’s spokesperson for Pietermaritzburg, Maureen Vida.
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/ 8 November 2007
A 14-year-old boy was recovering in hospital on Thursday after he was attacked by a shark in Strand, Cape Town, the National Sea Rescue Institute said. Spokesperson Craig Lambinon said Andrew Smith — who lives in the area — was surfing at about 5.30pm on Wednesday when he felt something pulling him by the legs.
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/ 8 November 2007
Global economic power relations, the commodity cycle and food prices are some of the issues to be discussed at next week’s Group of 20 (G20) meeting in South Africa. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the meeting is ”probably the most significant gathering of economic policymakers we’ve ever had in South Africa”.
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/ 8 November 2007
The drunken-driving case of Judge Nkola Motata was on Thursday postponed to allow magistrate Desmond Nair to rule on whether the defence could submit a request for a high court review of one of his rulings. The ruling allowed the court to listen to recordings of Motata’s alleged drunken diatribes following a car accident earlier this year.
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/ 8 November 2007
The Cabinet has approved 85% of government spending on a number of products and services procured from small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). This measure is intended to grow SMMEs and increase demand for goods and services from the sector, government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday.
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/ 8 November 2007
Like the Mona Lisa, she has a strange allure; the almost sad eyes looking at you across 2,15-million years. A lifelike bust shows what one of South Africa’s most famous fossils, Mrs Ples, probably looked like. The bust, reconstructed by French artist Elisabeth Daynes, goes on display for the first time in Pretoria from Friday.
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/ 8 November 2007
More than R500 000-worth of damage was caused to underground electricity cables when two men hacked into a live cable in an alleged attempt to steal the copper cable in Kensington, Cape Town, the chairperson of the metal-theft task team said on Thursday.