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/ 17 January 2006

Mbeki’s response to UAE flight ‘laughable’

The presidency’s explanation for Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s taxpayer-funded private trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December was laughable, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. ”The basic underlying fact remains that a trip was undertaken by the deputy president, her family and friends at taxpayers’ expense,” the party said in a statement.

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/ 17 January 2006

US believes Bin Laden is still alive

The United States believes al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is alive and hiding around the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. ”We have no intelligence or evidence that indicates that he [Bin Laden] is dead or incapacitated, so our working assumption is that he is still alive,” said State Department spokesperson Henry Crumpton.

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/ 17 January 2006

Parliament hears legislation hampers biotech research

Biotechnology research and development in South Africa should not be hampered by onerous and unnecessary safety checks, members of Parliament’s agriculture and land affairs committee heard on Tuesday. University of Pretoria honorary Professor Jocelyn Webster said it only very large companies or public institutions in wealthy countries that could afford all the biosafety assessments required.

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/ 17 January 2006

Presidency: No laws broken by UAE trip

No laws had been broken through Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December, the presidency said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Murphy Morobe dismissed as ”preposterous” the view that Mlambo-Ngcuka had abused her power by taking Thuthukile Mazibuko-Skweyiya — wife of Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya — with her on the trip.

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/ 17 January 2006

Côte d’Ivoire: renewed protests paralyse Abidjan

Two main political parties in Côte d’Ivoire rejected on Tuesday a plan to scrap Parliament in order to hasten a peace process, bringing renewed paralysis to Abidjan streets after a day of massive disruption. Both the Ivorian Popular Front and the once all-powerful Côte d’Ivoire Democratic Party said the proposal made to wind up the legislature was unacceptable.