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/ 1 February 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank Governor Gideon Gono has called for a four-month freeze on prices and wages in a last-ditch bid to halt the Southern African country’s dizzying economic decline, it emerged on Thursday. Unveiling a package of measures aimed at encouraging economic recovery, he said Zimbabwe is in the middle of a vicious economic war.
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/ 1 February 2007
The editor of a private Zimbabwean weekly newspaper received an envelope with a bullet and a stern warning after it published a cartoon lampooning poorly paid soldiers, a senior journalist said on Thursday. The Standard is one of the few remaining independent newspapers after authorities invoked strict media laws to shut down four papers.
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/ 1 February 2007
Tributes from political parties and leaders from other sections of society continued pouring in on Thursday for Adelaide Tambo, widow of former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo, who died on Wednesday. Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa would sorely miss Tambo in these days when the country needed knowledge.
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/ 1 February 2007
The South African National Museum of Military History is making a civil claim against the South African National Defence Force over a raid on the museum in 2005. Museum director Major John Keene confirmed on Thursday that there was a claim under way, but would not divulge any other details.
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/ 1 February 2007
The United States is still powerful enough to shape an agenda for international activity but too weak to implement it globally as it faces uncertain prospects in Iraq, an escalating confrontation over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and a robust challenge to its military hegemony from an increasingly assertive China, argues a new report by a leading United Kingdom think tank.
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/ 1 February 2007
Chadian rebels fighting to overthrow President Idriss Déby Itno on Thursday attacked the eastern border town of Adre on the main road route into Sudan’s Darfur region, the government and rebel spokespersons said. In recent months, several rebel groups have launched a spate of hit-and-run attacks against Chad government forces in the east.
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/ 1 February 2007
An Air France flight from Paris to Rome was diverted to the eastern French city of Lyon on Thursday after an anonymous phone call warned of a bomb, a spokesperson for the civil aviation authorities said. The spokesperson said the plane landed safely and all the passengers had disembarked.
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/ 1 February 2007
South Africa is in danger of becoming an African country where its citizens cannot speak, read or write African languages, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday. Speaking at the official opening of the University of South Africa’s academic year, Mlambo-Ngcuka pleaded that students should be able to study in African languages.
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/ 1 February 2007
British police have questioned Prime Minister Tony Blair for a second time in an investigation into political party funding that has cast a shadow over his final months in office. Blair’s official spokesperson said on Thursday the prime minister had been questioned as a witness last Friday at his Downing Street office. Labour Party politicians said they did not expect the inquiry to force Blair from office sooner than planned.
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/ 1 February 2007
Standard Bank forecasts a slow down in house prices while maintaining its long-held view that aggregated house prices are unlikely to fall. In a statement released on Thursday, the bank attributed the predicted slowdown to waning investor appetite for buy-to-let residential properties, combined with constrained demand and finances from owner-occupants.