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/ 4 September 2007
Two very different movies about the Iraq war are among the favourites for awards at this year’s Venice film festival as it passes the halfway stage, and an unusually high number of male leads have stood out. For pure shock value, Brian De Palma’s Redacted wins hands down, stunning audiences with an uncompromising reconstruction of the real-life rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl.
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/ 4 September 2007
The embattled Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has suffered a further blow with the defection of its deputy president Themba Godi and two MPLs to the newly formed African People’s Convention (APC). Godi’s move to the APC was announced by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete at the start of proceedings on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
Private investors will inject about -billion into a 15-year project to revamp the crumbling seafront and picturesque bay surrounding Angola’s capital, Luanda, state media reported on Tuesday. New hotels, offices and houses will be built as part of the effort to spruce up an area stretching from the Port of Luanda to the Ilha peninsula.
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/ 4 September 2007
Representatives from Sunni and Shia groups in Iraq agreed on a road map to peace based on the experience in Northern Ireland after four days of secret talks in Finland. The meeting brought together 16 delegates from the feuding groups to study lessons learned from successful peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland.
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/ 4 September 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Young Communists League took issue on Tuesday with African National Congress national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota over his remarks about those singing the freedom song, Umshini Wami. ”We respect comrade Lekota’s views but we disagree with them strongly,” Cosatu said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
Former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha and his two co-accused, software specialist Muziwendoda Kunene and IT specialist Funokwakhe Madlala, had their fraud case postponed in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday. The case was postponed to October 1 for trial and plea.
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/ 4 September 2007
An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence against Saddam Hussein’s cousin, widely known as Chemical Ali, for masterminding a genocide campaign against Iraq’s Kurds in the 1980s. ”The nine appeal judges have upheld the death sentence against Ali Hassan al-Majeed,” the chief prosecutor in the trial, Munkith al-Fatlawi, said.
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/ 4 September 2007
Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie has decided not to testify in his murder trial in the Cape High Court. His advocate, Koos Louw, closed his client’s case on Tuesday morning without calling any witnesses. Staggie is charged with the August 1996 killing of taxi driver Mogamat Ryklief, allegedly in revenge for the slaying three days earlier of Staggie’s twin brother.
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/ 4 September 2007
At least 20 Burundi fighters were killed on Tuesday in heavy clashes between two rival rebel factions that sent scores of residents fleeing the capital’s northern suburbs. Machine gunfire and explosions shattered the air as insurgents opposed to Agathon Rwasa, the leader of the rebel Forces for National Liberation, battled fighters loyal to him.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African new vehicle sales declined by 3% to 58Â 040 units year-on-year in August as higher interest rates weigh on the passenger car sector. This was the fifth consecutive month of lower sales, but the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers said the August figure was only slightly down on the record sales for the same month last year.