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/ 19 January 2006
South African business tycoon Anton Edward Rupert (89), who died in his sleep at his home in Stellenbosch on Wednesday night, was a pioneering billionaire, entrepreneur and conservationist. From humble beginnings as a chemistry lecturer, manufacturing cigarettes in his garage, Rupert built the tobacco and industrial conglomerate Rembrandt.
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/ 19 January 2006
Newspaper reports on Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s state-funded holiday trip to Abu Dhabi continued on Thursday despite official assurances that no laws were broken. Beeld said if Mlambo-Ngcuka were not so ”fussy” about an ordinary seat in business class, she could have saved the taxpayer R530 000.
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/ 19 January 2006
Spain’s most important modern-art museum on Wednesday admitted it has lost a 38-tonne sculpture by the prestigious American artist Richard Serra. The valuable sculpture was commissioned from the artist by Madrid’s Reina SofÃa modern-art museum in 1986, and was displayed there until 1990.
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/ 19 January 2006
The United States-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday, in its annual report, accused European countries, including the United Kingdom, of undermining human rights worldwide by courting countries such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia while ignoring evidence of their extensive abuses.
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/ 19 January 2006
The British government is to co-host an international summit in London at the end of the month to agree a five-year plan to speed up the reconstruction of Afghanistan and confront an upsurge in violence. The announcement came as a Taliban commander said his guerrillas are ready to launch suicide attacks across Afghanistan.
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/ 19 January 2006
Amazon.com plans to broadcast on its website an original show hosted by Bill Maher and featuring performers and authors touting new releases — which will be for sale at the online retailer. The webcast series is the first offering in what the company says is a plan to add more original programming to its website.
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/ 19 January 2006
An offensive by troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) against militia armies in the volatile east has driven 122 000 people from their homes, the United Nations mission in the DRC (Monuc) said on Wednesday. ”A new wave of 46 000 people has been displaced since November 2005,” Monuc said.
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/ 19 January 2006
Unions representing about 85 000 workers at Transnet are considering strike action as management at the parastatal is ”steamrolling” negotiations over restructuring. ”There’s a very big possibility of strike action within the next month,” a South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union spokesperson said.
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/ 19 January 2006
South Africa has appealed to all parties involved in the Iranian nuclear programme to refrain from any action that could further increase tension and confrontation. This followed a meeting between Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad and Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Mehdi Mostafavi, on Wednesday.
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/ 19 January 2006
As many as 60 Zimbabwean border jumpers could have drowned in the flooded Limpopo River last week, Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. It said on its website police could neither confirm nor deny this figure.
The border jumpers are believed to have perished last Friday night in the Dite area.