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/ 16 February 2006
The South African National Defence Force appears to be escaping somewhat from the stranglehold of expenditure on the strategic defence procurement package as the repayment peaked last year and drops off from 2006 to 2008. Of the total defence costs of R23,5billion for 2005, R9,2billion was allocated to the Strategic Defence Account.
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/ 16 February 2006
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy branded Iran’s nuclear programme for the first time on Thursday as a ”clandestine, military” project. In response to sharp protests from Iran, however, France’s foreign ministry reiterated Paris’s official position, which is that Tehran’s nuclear activities ”raise doubts about their peaceful nature”.
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/ 16 February 2006
Russian biathlete Olga Pyleva was expelled from the Winter Olympics and stripped of the silver medal she won the women’s 15km race for failing a dope test, the International Olympic Committee announced on Thursday. It was the first failed dope test since the Games began on February 10.
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/ 16 February 2006
Rahul Dravid hit a patient half-century and paceman Rudra Pratap Singh grabbed four wickets as India trounced Pakistan by five wickets in the fourth one-day match on Thursday. Dravid scored 59 as India overtook Pakistan’s modest 162-run target with 17,3 overs to spare at Multan stadium, giving the tourists an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
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/ 16 February 2006
More than 500 coffee growers, investors and researchers gathered in Tanzania on Wednesday to discuss the future of the industry in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. The region grows some of the world’s most distinctive coffees, along a long north-south axis that includes the highlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.
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/ 16 February 2006
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has welcomed the life sentence handed down on Thursday to the man who raped and murdered HIV-positive TAC activist Lorna Mlofane. Cape High Court judge Dumisani Zondi sentenced Ncedile Ntumbukane to life in prison for the murder in December 2003, and a concurrent ten years for the rape, the TAC said.
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/ 16 February 2006
An increased budget for land restitution and distribution could be used to finalise land claims at market-related prices, the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa said on Thursday. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday tabled an estimated R3-billion increase in the land reform Budget over the next three years.
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/ 16 February 2006
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has urged the public not to vote for local government election candidates who were inactive in the fight against HIV/Aids. ”If candidates do not support testing for HIV or Aids, don’t vote for them. If candidates don’t support the use of condoms, don’t vote for them,” said TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat.
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/ 16 February 2006
Relatives of the original composer of <i>The Lion Sleeps Tonight</i> have dropped a lawsuit against Disney after settling for an undisclosed sum of money with a United States music publishing house. The family of the late Solomon Linda, who composed the original Zulu tune for the song, was claiming R10-million in damages from the entertainment giant.
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/ 16 February 2006
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered California to reformulate the lethal-injection method used to kill condemned inmates, saying the original might be unconstitutionally painful. United States District Judge Jeremy Fogel refused to stop the February 21 execution of Michael Morales in San Quentin State Prison, but ruled it can proceed only if a quick-killing drug cocktail were used.