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/ 21 September 2007
The world’s largest toy maker, Mattel, apologised on Friday for damaging China’s reputation after recent massive recalls of its Chinese-made toys, admitting it targeted some goods that were actually up to scratch. Mattel has come under scrutiny following the recall of about 21-million of the toys in a span of five weeks.
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/ 21 September 2007
Tanzania will boost the proportion of citizens with access to electricity to 25% by around 2013, the country’s energy minister said on Friday. Only about 10% of Tanzania’s 40-million people currently have access to electricity, and the government plans to focus its efforts on the poorest living in rural areas.
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/ 21 September 2007
Sri Lankan fighter jets bombed a Tamil Tiger military base in the rebel-held far north on Friday, triggering multiple explosions, the air force said, while a suspected rebel roadside bomb killed one civilian in the east. The air strike targeted top leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
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/ 21 September 2007
Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma on Friday embarked on his first foreign trip since taking office this week, heading to neighbouring Guinea and Liberia to promote ties damaged by more than a decade of war. The former insurance executive was sworn in on Monday within hours of being declared winner of a run-off election.
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/ 21 September 2007
South Africa is dogged by a skills mismatch that is like a ticking time bomb, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Friday. The economy has been generating about 76% of jobs requiring semi-skilled and skilled labour, with only 26% of generated jobs requiring labour at the low-skilled level, he said.
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/ 21 September 2007
Bangladeshi police broke up a protest march by hundreds of Muslims after Friday prayers over the publication of a cartoon that they say offended their religion. Bangladesh suspended publication of Alpin, a weekly satire magazine of leading Bengali daily Prothom Alo, and its publishers apologised.
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/ 21 September 2007
The trial of Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Friday because he is too ill to stand trial. The court was told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.
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/ 21 September 2007
Sport stars, poets and scientists shared the spotlight at a National Orders awards ceremony in Pretoria on Friday. President Thabo Mbeki bestowed South Africa’s highest awards on 20 recipients. Among those receiving awards were Morne du Plessis, Sam Ramsamy, Roland Schoeman, Elisabeth Eybers and Wally Serote.
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/ 21 September 2007
Floods are continuing to ravage an arc of African countries from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, washing away homes and ruining crops, and have been reported as the worst in years in many states. Uganda is experiencing its worst floods in memory, with about 89 000 households ”severely affected”.
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/ 21 September 2007
The ever-increasing cost of private healthcare undermines the country’s transformation agenda, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. ”There is inadequate level of diversity of ownership and competition within the sector,” she told a private healthcare conference in Midrand.