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/ 21 February 2006

Provocative T-shirt show banned in Poland

A university in Poland has banned an exhibition of T-shirts bearing slogans such as "I didn’t cry when the Pope died" and "I’ve got Aids," saying the show was too provocative, press reports said on Tuesday. "The texts printed on the T-shirts could have offended the feelings and beliefs of many people," said Wieslaw Kaminski, president of UMCS University.

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/ 21 February 2006

Nigeria hunts ‘human shield’ oil hostages

Nigerian authorities hunted for nine foreign workers being held as ”human shields” by rebel fighters on Tuesday as the crisis in Africa’s biggest oil industry forced world oil prices up sharply. The nine oilmen were seized on Saturday by separatist guerrillas during an attack on the energy giant Shell’s Forcados oil terminal.

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/ 21 February 2006

Nigerian hostage-takers call for mediation

Militants holding nine foreign oil-worker hostages called on Tuesday for independent negotiators to mediate among the hostage-takers and a Nigerian federal government they deem illegitimate. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said there have been no negotiations so far for the liberation of the hostages taken on Saturday.

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/ 21 February 2006

Cholera stalks southern Sudan

The death toll from a suspected cholera outbreak in southern Sudan has risen to 68 but the fatality rate of the epidemic is on the decline, the United Nations’s health agency said on Tuesday. The outbreak has hit two major southern Sudanese towns, the administrative capital Juba and Yei near the border with Uganda.

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/ 21 February 2006

Mr Price Home celebrates R1bn sales mark

Mr Price Home, the furniture, homeware and home decor chain of stores owned by listed retailer Mr Price Group, has reached the R1-billion mark in annual sales after only seven years of operations, the company announced on Tuesday. "This is an important milestone for Mr Price Home," said CEO Alastair McArthur.

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/ 21 February 2006

Skandia CEO lauds improved results

The CEO of Swedish financial-services group Skandia, Hans-Erik Andersson, faced with the recent success of Old Mutual’s R38-billion takeover of the company, has emphasised Skandia’s improved operations and his belief in the soundness of its current business model in his comments regarding Skandia’s 2005 annual results on Tuesday.

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/ 21 February 2006

Mozambican Muslims meet over cartoons

Muslims throughout Mozambique are meeting this week to discuss how to respond to the publishing by local newspaper Savana of the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, which has stirred violent protest around the world. The independent weekly on Friday reprinted eight of the 12 cartoons.