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/ 23 February 2006
The Democratic Alliance will ”turn on the lights” and pressurise Eskom and the government to get their act together regarding the current spate of electricity outages, party leader Tony Leon promised on Thursday. He said in this election the old slogan ”Power to the people” has taken on new meaning.
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/ 23 February 2006
When a primary-school teacher in the troubled Khutsong township asked her grade-one students what the word ”demarcation” means, one pupil answered: ”They want to move us somewhere poor.” The children think it’s ”just a game” to provoke the police by throwing stones and burning tyres in the streets, says the teacher.
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/ 23 February 2006
Health officials sealed off an Indian town hit by bird flu for a week-long ”quarantine” on Thursday as immediate fears began easing that the deadly virus may have spread to humans. Checkpoints were set up on all roads in and out of the town of Navapur and trains passed through its station without stopping.
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/ 23 February 2006
The historic town of Tulbagh is anxiously waiting to see if Eskom goes ahead with a proposed power line to supplement the electricity needs of the Western Cape. ”We are watching developments [in Cape Town] with concern,” said John Veschini, property developer and secretary to the Tulbagh Action Committee, on Thursday.
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/ 23 February 2006
When the October 8 earthquake split a Pakistani mountain, two villages and 560 people were buried under a 2,1km-long rock slide. Now the huge pile of earth and boulders is threatening Hattian Bala, a village of 1 500 homes, as the approaching monsoon season poses new dangers of flooding, officials said on Thursday.
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/ 23 February 2006
Six British tourists and a pilot were taken to hospital after a helicopter made an emergency landing in the Cape of Good Hope area of the Table Mountain National Park on Thursday morning. A Cape Town emergency services spokesperson said the passengers and pilot had extricated themselves from the wreckage.
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/ 23 February 2006
The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court has postponed the case against an IT consultant accused of withholding information about hoax e-mails mentioning senior African National Congress officials. The state and defence had agreed to postpone the case for both parties ”to discuss the status of the case”, chief prosecutor Matric Luphondo said.
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/ 23 February 2006
Better houses, toilets, helping grandparents with school fees and voting for the African National Congress were the topics Thaba Nchu residents discussed with President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday. The president was visiting the town as part of the ANC’s door-to-door campaign for the local government elections.
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/ 23 February 2006
The death toll in the powerful quake that hit Mozambique on Thursday morning was still uncertain by Thursday afternoon, with authorities still visiting rural areas to assess the impact there. The quake could be felt as far afield as Harare and Durban. Two deaths have been reported so far.
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/ 23 February 2006
At least 38 people were killed and 29 injured on Thursday when the snow-laden roof of an indoor market in Moscow collapsed, said Artyom Bibilurov, a spokesperson for the emergency situations ministry. Hours after the roof collapsed, fire appeared to have broken out in the ruins.