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/ 11 January 2006
London- and South Africa-listed financial-services group Old Mutual is likely to unveil a far higher level of acceptances related to its R38-billion takeover offer for Swedish insurer Skandia than the current 64,3% after the tender offer closes at midnight on Thursday.
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/ 11 January 2006
Pro-democracy activists in Swaziland are planning mass action against the kingdom’s leader, King Mswati III, following the December arrest of 14 opposition party members on high-treason charges. Youth organisations will be called on to participate in mass action, which will take place in Swaziland and South Africa.
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/ 11 January 2006
A high-tech scanner that digitally ”strips” travellers on their way to their plane or train will go on trial for four weeks from Thursday at a major London rail station, officials said. Passengers at Paddington Station in West London will be invited to pass through the scanner before they board the Heathrow Express non-stop train service to the British capital’s main airport.
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/ 11 January 2006
South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested in a letter that President Thabo Mbeki take action over what it described as ”the possible abuse of state resources” by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. It is estimated that a holiday — described by DA MP Gareth Morgan as ”a gravy plane holiday” — to the United Arab Emirates in December cost about  000.
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/ 11 January 2006
Gold was higher in choppy and highly liquid trade on Wednesday afternoon amid a firmer euro. At 2.46pm, gold was quoted at $544,20 a troy ounce, up $1/oz from its previous close. "It has been quite a choppy and volatile day. We’ve seen extremely high levels of liquidity," a Johannesburg-based trader said.
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/ 11 January 2006
Budapest firefighters had to remove a window and a large section of wall, and use a forklift to extract a grossly overweight woman from her home, MTI news agency reported. Firefighters spent five hours dismantling the home of the middle-aged woman, who weighs in at between 200kg and 300kg.
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/ 11 January 2006
Australian police said on Wednesday that they will counter an SMS service that tips off motorists about the location of random breath testing (RBT) patrol cars by constantly shifting their location. Road Spy provides subscribers with SMSs alerting them to the locations of RBT patrols as well as radar and speed-camera traps.
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/ 11 January 2006
The African Christian Democratic Party in the Free State on Wednesday urged the African National Congress and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in the province to sort out their differences. Sanco in the Free State on Tuesday said it would contest the forthcoming local government elections alone.
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/ 11 January 2006
A flood emergency might be declared at Standerton in Mpumalanga as more water flows into the already over-full Grootdraai Dam, authorities said on Wednesday. The South African Weather Service said more rain is expected on Wednesday and Thursday, especially over the Highveld and Mpumalanga.
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/ 11 January 2006
The European court of justice dismissed a challenge on Tuesday to European Union rules covering compensation for air travellers whose flights are overbooked, cancelled or delayed. Europe’s highest court rejected claims by the International Air Transport Association and the European Low Fares Airline Association that the regulations were unfair to their members and failed to protect consumers.