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/ 26 July 2007

Minister: Half of state dams not up to standard

Over half the dams owned and managed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry do not comply with modern safety standards, but are not necessarily unsafe, said Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks. ”At present, 160 of the 294 dams owned by my department do not comply with current-day dam safety standards,” she said on Thursday.

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/ 26 July 2007

Exiled Somali MPs reject call for peace talks

Somali opposition politicians exiled in Eritrea dismissed calls on Thursday to attend a peace meeting in Mogadishu that is also being opened up to Islamists and even insurgents who have attacked the conference venue. Organisers appeared to be heeding donor calls for inclusiveness when they announced the move on Wednesday.

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/ 26 July 2007

Soccer’s TV-rights saga settled

The battle over soccer television rights was settled on Thursday in an agreement in which the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will screen 143 Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches. The agreement between the PSL, pay channel SuperSport and the public broadcaster gives the SABC exclusive screening rights to 110 matches.

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/ 26 July 2007

Could hospital cat be angel of death?

He is a two-year-old cat and looks innocent enough. But at the nursing home where he lives in the United States state of Rhode Island, Oscar has developed a reputation as an angel of death. Since being adopted, he has revealed a rather morbid tendency to pick which patient is going to die next.

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/ 26 July 2007

Floods kill dozens in Sudan

Flash floods and rains in Sudan have killed 59 people and damaged 35 000 homes, Awad Widatallah Hussein, spokesperson for the government’s emergency response committee, said on Thursday. Officials described the floods as the worst in memory.

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/ 26 July 2007

McLaren cleared in F1 spy case

McLaren were cleared on Thursday by Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, of any wrongdoing in the espionage affair that has engulfed the sport this season. An extraordinary hearing of the 25-strong World Motor Sports Council, the sport’s highest body, ruled that there was no evidence the British team had benefited from confidential Ferrari documents.

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/ 26 July 2007

Libya slams pardons for HIV medics

Libya accused Bulgaria on Thursday of violating an agreement between the two countries when it pardoned six medical workers convicted of intentionally infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. Libya’s formal protest came a day after the HIV victims’ families condemned Bulgaria’s ”recklessness”.