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/ 19 January 2006
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden threatened new attacks were being prepared against the United States, according to an audiotape attributed to him and broadcast on al-Jazeera television on Thursday. But the voice on the tape, broadcast a week after a US strike against al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan, also offered the American people a ”long term truce”.
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/ 19 January 2006
Ten HIV-infected demonstrators and a tuberculosis sufferer were refused food and medicine while in police cells, human rights groups said on Thursday in a report that accuses Zimbabwe of failing to meet minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners.
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/ 19 January 2006
Damage caused by a loose bolt inside a Koeberg nuclear power station generator will require repairs of at least three months. Eskom’s chief executive, Thulani Gcabashe said the bolt incident had no link to three power outages experienced last November, and had to date had ”no direct impact” on power supply to the Cape.
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/ 19 January 2006
Nearly 90% of Italians call themselves Catholics, but more than two-thirds favour legal recognition for unmarried couples despite opposition from the Church, according to a study sociologists say is evidence that Italians tailor their religion to
fit their lifestyles.
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/ 19 January 2006
Two near simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad coffee shop and nearby restaurant, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, according to police and hospital officials. The blasts occurred as the mother of abducted American reporter Jill Carroll appealed for her daughter’s release.
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/ 19 January 2006
Zimbabwe has made a ,5-million payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ahead of a visit by the world lending body next week, the finance minister told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday. A five-member IMF delegation is due to arrive in Zimbabwe for a six-day visit on Tuesday.
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/ 19 January 2006
British Airways plans to help the Nigerian aviation industry modernise in the wake of several recent air disasters that have claimed hundreds of lives, said a Nigerian government statement on Thursday. Nigeria’s aging aviation fleet is made up of mostly secondhand or leased aircraft from former Soviet block countries.
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/ 19 January 2006
British opposition parties demanded answers from the government on Thursday after a leaked memo suggested uncertainty about the exact number of United States ”rendition” flights allowed to use British airspace. A Foreign Office memo to Downing Street suggests the US Central Intelligence Agency may have operated more flights than the two already confirmed by London.
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/ 19 January 2006
<i>Going Home</i> by Simão Kikamba tells the story of an exiled man’s plight in South Africa. Here is an excerpt.
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/ 19 January 2006
South Africa could have more women than men serving as metropolitan mayors after the local government elections, the African National Congress said on Thursday. Fifty percent of the ANC’s public representatives in local government have to be women, said party secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe.