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/ 1 September 2006
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has issued the first licence to Sasol Gas to construct gas-distribution pipelines — in Germiston’s Roodekop area — Nersa said on Friday. ”The issuing of the licence to Sasol Gas is a milestone decision for the energy regulator,” spokesperson Nhlanhla Cebekhulu said in a statement.
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/ 1 September 2006
South African President Thabo Mbeki has sprung to the defence of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu — who recently urged that former deputy president Jacob Zuma should not become president — following what he describes as a ”truly distressing personal attack” on the archbishop by the Congress of South African Students.
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/ 1 September 2006
An Israeli military court on Thursday ordered 15 Hamas leaders, including two Cabinet ministers and the speaker of Palestine’s Parliament, to go on trial charged with membership of an outlawed organisation. The group, 12 of them elected members of the Parliament, appeared in court at Ofer Camp on the occupied West Bank.
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/ 1 September 2006
Thousands of homes in central South Africa were left without power on Friday after a marksman hit an overhead power line when taking a pot-shot at a bird sitting on the wire. A spokesperson for the Eskom power company said that two entire towns in the south-east of the central Free State province were blacked out after the incident at breakfast time.
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/ 1 September 2006
Last Thursday, Thai television stations interrupted programmes to broadcast live footage of what appeared to be the immediate aftermath of an attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Millions of viewers were glued to their sets watching bomb squad officers defuse a car, packed with dozens of kilograms of explosives, parked outside Thaksin’s Bangkok residence.
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/ 1 September 2006
Shinzo Abe, the man widely tipped to become Japan’s next leader, announced his bid for the premiership on Friday with policies that include sweeping reforms to the country’s pacifist Constitution. He said Japan’s security would continue to depend on maintaining strong relations with the United States.
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/ 1 September 2006
Only a week after Pluto was stripped of its status as a full-fledged planet of the solar system, rebel astronomers have launched a campaign to have it restored in pomp and glory. A petition already signed by more than 300 researchers is attacking the International Astronomical Union decision to expel Pluto from the solar system’s A-list and doom it to the status of ”dwarf planet”.
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/ 1 September 2006
The trial of two men implicated in the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga will start in November. Software salesperson Muziwendoda Kunene and the NIA’s manager for electronic surveillance Funokwakhe Madladla stand accused of fraud relating to the hoax e-mails.
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/ 1 September 2006
The government must let the public know exactly what perks presidents are entitled to when they retire, the Democratic Alliance said on Friday. This was after reports that the government was funding a R22-million retirement mansion in Houghton for President Thabo Mbeki.
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/ 1 September 2006
Sabido, the sole shareholder of e.tv, has applied for a satellite television subscription broadcasting licence, e.tv said on Friday. The company intends to serve to middle-income South Africans who are ”presently under-served” by subscription television.