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/ 13 January 2006
Nigerian troops were searching on Friday for an armed gang which stormed an oil industry supply vessel and kidnapped four foreign workers, a military spokesperson said. The hostages were taken on Wednesday when around 40 gunmen in three canoes seized the boat Liberty Service in waters off the Niger Delta, 180km east of Lagos, naval Captain Obiara Medani said.
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/ 13 January 2006
The Beach Boys are suing two men for -million, claiming they stole a trove of photos, recordings and other band memorabilia from a warehouse with the intent of putting the items up for auction. The lawsuit names three defendants — Allan Gaba, the owner of a North Hollywood, California warehouse, his friend, Roy Sciacca, and Gem Systems, a company Sciacca was involved in.
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/ 13 January 2006
Gunmen armed with an assault rifle shot and killed a well-known elderly British environmentalist early on Friday in an apparent robbery in Kenya’s central Rift Valley, police said. Joan Wenn Root (69) the daughter of a colonial-era British settler, was shot three times in her bed at home near the town of Naivasha, about 90km northwest of Nairobi.
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/ 13 January 2006
South African strike bowler Makhaya Ntini could make a surprise return for the triangular one-day series in Brisbane after Andre Nel was found to have a severe stress fracture in his left foot on Friday. Nel, South Africa’s leading wicket-taker in the 2-0 Test series loss to Australia, will fly home early on Saturday, missing the upcoming series which also includes Sri Lanka.
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/ 13 January 2006
Sourav Ganguly was included in the Indian team for the first Test against Pakistan in Lahore on Friday due to pressure from cricket board chiefs, said a team source. Coach Greg Chappell and captain Rahul Dravid did not want Ganguly to open the innings and could not fit him in the middle-order either without disturbing a trusted combination.
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/ 13 January 2006
A dispute between business partners has exposed the continued involvement of fugitive business person Billy Rautenbach in the massive exploitation of mineral resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Rautenbach, who currently lives in Zimbabwe and the DRC, left South Africa in about October 2000 when a warrant for his arrest was issued on charges of fraud, theft and corruption.
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/ 13 January 2006
The little Dutch family was translucently white where it stood gazing out to sea from the Promenade. They had swaddled themselves in linen to look like albino Touareg nomads, and submerged the child in the pram in some sort of heliocidal balm, but still they squirmed under the African sun.
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/ 13 January 2006
World number-four gold miner Gold Fields on Thursday received sufficient backing from the security holders of Toronto-listed Bolivar Gold to take control of the company, Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said. Bolivar shareholders holding 76% of the company’s shares voted in favour of Gold Fields’ offer.
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/ 13 January 2006
The gold bull trend experienced last year is expected to remain intact throughout 2006, with the metal forecast to average $544 a troy ounce and to trade in a range between $490/oz and $620/oz in 2006, Switzerland-based MKS Finance senior vice-president Frederic Panizzutti said on Friday.
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/ 13 January 2006
London- and South Africa-listed financial-services group Old Mutual is currently counting acceptances received from shareholders of Swedish insurer Skandia for its R38-billion offer for the company, which closed at midnight on Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the group.