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/ 13 September 2006
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila met his chief election rival Jean-Pierre Bemba on Wednesday for the first time since poll-related violence in August, an official said. Kabila’s spokesperson Kudura Kasongo said the meeting took place in the context of a regular gathering between the president and his four deputies, of which Bemba is one.
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/ 13 September 2006
The implications would be ”grave” should the Western Cape provincial government succeed to alter Cape Town’s mayoral system, incumbent mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. ”It will undermine international confidence in the future of democracy,” she said.
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/ 13 September 2006
South African health authorities went on high alert on Wednesday after officials confirmed a case of a new, deadly strain of tuberculosis (TB) in Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub. Officials said the case, a woman, had refused to stay in hospital — stoking fears the TB strain could spread rapidly through communities already weakened by HIV/Aids.
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/ 13 September 2006
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) has never called for Jacob Zuma to be president of South Africa, the union’s general secretary, Randall Howard, said on Wednesday. ”We have never spoken about comrade Jacob Zuma for president. This [Satawu] is not an African National Congress structure.
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/ 13 September 2006
Opponents of veteran Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe abandoned plans on Wednesday for a series of anti-government protests after the organisers were arrested in a police crackdown. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions had hoped thousands of protesters would take to the streets in nationwide rallies to denounce fuel and food shortages.
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/ 13 September 2006
The prosecutor in the genocide trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Wednesday demanded that the chief judge resign, saying he was too lenient with defendants who had threatened lawyers and witnesses. ”Defendants have gone too far, with unacceptable expressions and words,” prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said at the opening of the latest hearing.
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/ 13 September 2006
Israeli President Moshe Katsav was grilled by police on Wednesday for a fifth time over allegations of sexual harassment in a mounting scandal that threatens to end his career. Katsav was questioned by police investigators for five hours at his Jerusalem residence, police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Axed spy boss Billy Masetlha was on Wednesday served with a criminal summons at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. His lawyer, Imraan Haffegee, said Masetlha was not arrested, but summoned to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on October 20.
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/ 13 September 2006
The apartheid-era operative dubbed ”Dr Death” for his alleged role in plots to murder black activists is still on the South African military payroll, officials confirmed on Wednesday. Wouter Basson receives a monthly salary of R50Â 000 from the South African National Defence Force, even though he was suspended from the force in 1999, they said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Seven of the 18 people arrested for the Jeppestown shootout after a supermarket robbery in June appeared in the Roodepoort Regional Court on Wednesday. However, their bail application was postponed until October 4 as one of their lawyers was ill. Four police officers and eight suspected robbers died in the bloody shootout.