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/ 22 December 2005
A man who used an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler as the greeting on his cellphone answering service went on trial on Thursday in Austria, where such statements are a crime. The 20-year-old defendant, whose name was not released in line with privacy laws, was being tried in the province of Tyrol.
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/ 22 December 2005
The world’s major powers and the United Nations must move urgently to prevent a new border war between arch-rival Horn of Africa neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea that could further destabilise the volatile region, a leading international policy institute warned on Thursday.
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/ 22 December 2005
The European Union and Iran still seem to be on a collision course over Tehran’s alleged atomic-weapons intentions despite the revival of talks, diplomats and analysts said on Thursday. The EU and Iran resumed talks on Wednesday, agreeing after five hours to meet again in January.
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/ 22 December 2005
Four youths killed when lightning struck an initiation school in the Mqanduli area of Transkei last week were buried on Thursday in an emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of people. Seven other would-be initiates were injured in the third fatal lighting strike at an initiation school in the region in three years.
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/ 22 December 2005
Water delivered to Zimbabwe’s capital contains high levels of bacteria, acid and sedimentary impurities, a state daily reported on Thursday, saying it falls short of local and world health standards. ”Toxin-producing blue-green algae are consistently present in the drinking water,” the Herald said.
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/ 22 December 2005
Toxic chemicals that contaminated a river after a blast at a factory in China last month flowed into the Russian city of Khabarovsk on Thursday, but officials said concentrations posed negligible danger for human health. Meanwhile, a second Chinese city has stopped drawing its drinking water from a southern river after a toxic spill.
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/ 22 December 2005
In what is being hailed as a groundbreaking black economic empowerment (BEE) to BEE deal, South Africa’s Mvela Group is to sell its 22,9% stake in Mvela Resources to unlisted resources empowerment company Incwala Resources for R763-million — or R20 per share.
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/ 22 December 2005
Four years after Ireland adopted the euro, up to 60 people a day are still turning up at the central bank in Dublin to offload their old punts — many with some peculiar explanations. ”There are still a lot of people finding hoards of old money, but the amounts are getting smaller,” a central bank spokesperson said on Thursday.
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/ 22 December 2005
At least eight people were reported on Thursday to have died in an explosion that set ablaze a pipeline in the oilfields of southern Nigeria, as the Shell oil company said it is unable to make deliveries to customers. The oil giant has declared a state of force majeure, a legal term allowing a party to a contract to breach its terms legally.