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/ 12 January 2006
Shots were fired at Johannesburg’s emergency services and police who had rushed to the rescue of three people reportedly swept away by flood waters in Kya Sands on Thursday. ”We arrived at where they were supposed to be washed away and suddenly shots were fired towards the river,” an emergency services spokesperson said.
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/ 12 January 2006
A company has formally applied for a commercial broadcasting licence that, if granted, will see a new subscription television service to Africa operating out of Botswana. Black Earth Communications said on Thursday it has applied with the Botswana National Broadcasting board.
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/ 12 January 2006
A row was brewing in Iraq on Thursday after a top Shi’ite leader spoke out against amending the country’s federal system, a main demand by minority Sunni Arabs who fear being denied their share of oil revenues. The comment came as Iraq’s political parties prepare to hear the final results of landmark elections held almost a month ago, before they start jostling to form the first permanent government.
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/ 12 January 2006
Business expectations for the next six months have improved significantly, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Thursday. Expectations on sales, new orders and employment were more positive in December than in November 2005, the business lobby said.
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/ 12 January 2006
It was the early evening of May 13 1981 and Pope John Paul II was being driven across Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican in his open white car, as he was every week for his general audience. As usual, the huge plaza was thronged with pilgrims and onlookers, numbering around 20 000. It also contained at least one would-be assassin.
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/ 12 January 2006
Western opposition to Iran’s nuclear programme is rooted in a ”colonial mentality” and the Islamic republic will not back down to mounting pressure, top cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Thursday. ”They want to deprive Islamic nations of having nuclear energy knowledge and always keep them backwards,” he said.
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/ 12 January 2006
A British prisoner who transferred from a men’s jail to a women’s facility after changing sex has opted to swap gender — and prisons –again, a report said on Thursday. John Pilley was granted permission in 1999 to have a sex change. The procedure took place two years later after which he was moved to a women’s prison.
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/ 12 January 2006
The JSE was slightly firmer in noon trade on Thursday as it managed to post gains despite a rampant rand. Stronger United States and Asian markets and South Africa’s favourable interest rate outlook had a positive influence on the local bourse.
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/ 12 January 2006
Four Shell foreign oil workers have been abducted from an offshore oilfield in southern Nigeria, a company spokesperson said on Thursday. The Nigerian press said two of the Shell employees were Britons and the two other Hondurians, who were aboard a tanker, the <i>Sea Eagle</i>, loading crude oil in an offshore extraction zone.
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/ 12 January 2006
A rule obliging British parents to undertake the near-impossible task of making their babies adopt a "neutral" expression on passport photographs has been dropped after thousands of pictures were rejected. In less than three months last year, more than 15 000 applications for children’s passports were turned down because the applicants’ expressions were deemed irregular,