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/ 3 September 2007
It is an unlikely setting for romance. And when Sheikh Sayyid bin Maktoum al-Maktoum arrived in Belarus last month for a clay pigeon shooting competition, his only thought was how to win a medal. But soon after checking into the presidential suite of the Hotel Minsk the Sheikh’s gaze fell on an attractive 19-year-old waitress.
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/ 3 September 2007
Millions of commuters in London endured travel chaos on Tuesday as a 72-hour strike by Tube maintenance workers closed most of the network. As the strike entered its second day, Transport for London said the disruption was ”severe and unacceptable”, with trains suspended on all but three of the 12 lines.
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/ 3 September 2007
A strike by some workers at Angloplat refineries and smelter has not curbed output, the world’s biggest platinum producer said on Tuesday. Other employees were still on the job after 1 500 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) downed tools
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/ 3 September 2007
Measures to curb or control foreign ownership of land in South Africa are proposed in a government-commissioned report, a copy of which was obtained on Monday. A panel of experts call in the document for a two-year moratorium on foreign ownership of land.
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/ 3 September 2007
South Africa’s Telkom said on Monday it was in talks with Britain’s Vodafone and MTN, sparking talk it wants to sell its fixed-line business and its stake in cellphone operator Vodacom. Telkom gave no further details. Vodafone and MTN — sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cellphone operator — said separately the talks were at a ”very preliminary stage”.
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/ 3 September 2007
Forget the blazing guns of yesteryear — these days naval warfare is a high-tech and sophisticated operation. This became clear on Monday as an exercise involving Nato warships and the South African Navy got under way off the South African coast.
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/ 3 September 2007
Hurricane Felix, a potentially catastrophic storm with 260km/h winds, threatened on Monday to plow along the Caribbean coast of Honduras and dump torrential rain across Central America. Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize posted hurricane alerts.
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/ 3 September 2007
The editor of an independent Egyptian daily is to face prosecution over his paper’s coverage of the state of President Hosni Mubarak’s health, the head of the journalists’ union said on Monday. Recent speculation about Mubarak has included his hospitalisation, travel abroad for medical treatment and even death.
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/ 3 September 2007
Fighting between the regular army and renegade troops resumed on Monday after a weekend lull in an escalating battle for control of territory in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), United Nations observers said. ”We’re extremely alarmed by renewed clashes reported from the Ngungu zone,” said a spokesperson for the UN.
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/ 3 September 2007
The Lebanese army said on Monday it lost 163 soldiers in battles against radical Islamist militants at a refugee camp in northern Lebanon and hundreds more were injured. ”We have 163 soldiers killed in the battles at the camp,” an army spokesperson said.